The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina released its annual legislative report card Sept. 5, giving Buncombe County’s delegation vastly different scores.
Statehouse Reps. Nathan Ramsey and Tim Moffitt received scores of 0, while Rep. Susan Fisher earned a perfect score of 100.
The report rates members of the North Carolina General Assembly based on their votes on various pieces of legislation the ACLU-NC supported or opposed in the most recent session. This year’s report card rates legislators based on how they voted on legislation in five issue areas: voting rights, reproductive rights, racial justice, privacy rights and religious liberty.
Ramsey and Moffitt, both Republicans, each voted against the ACLU-NC’s positions on all of the issues involved in the ratings. They joined 55 of their House colleagues in earning a score of 0.
In contrast, Fisher, a Democrat, voted in line with the ACLU-NC’s recommendations all of the time. She was one of only 15 members to do so.
In the state Senate, Democrat Martin Nesbitt, who represents most of Buncombe County, voted in line with the ACLU on three of the five issues involved with the rankings (elections, reproductive rights, racial justice). Republican state Sen. Tom Apodaca, a Republican whose district includes a sliver of southern Buncombe County, received a score of 0.
In the Senate, 24 members, or 48 percent of the body, had a 0 voting record. Only one member, Sen. Ellie Kinnaird (Democrat, Wake County), who resigned at the end of this year’s session, had a voting record that was 100 percent in line with ACLU-NC positions.
The mission of the nonprofit ACLU-NC is “to preserve and defend the guarantees of individual liberty found in the North Carolina Constitution and the U.S. Constitution, with particular emphasis on freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of religion, equal protection under law for all people, the right to privacy, the right to due process of law and the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure.”
Before you comment
The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.