by Grass Roots North Carolina and its GRNC Political Victory Fund have published their 2010 Remember in November Voters Guide. One of the key things to point out about this guide is that it does not endorse any candidate. Rather it surveys candidates and analyzes their voting records to see how they stand on gun rights.
As Paul Valone notes in his Charlotte Gun Rights Examiner column:
GRNC’s “Remember in November” candidate evaluation system factors survey scores, gun-related voting records, bill sponsorship and other measures into a spreadsheet which estimates the percentage of the time a given candidate can be expected to concur with a control group of GRNC’s Life and Benefactor members.
A candidate who agrees at least 90% of the time gets four stars (****), 80% gets three stars (***), 70% gets two stars (**), 60% gets one star (*), and an estimated agreement of less than 60% gets zero stars (0).
This system does not give an automatic advantage to incumbents like the NRA’s ranking system. They don’t make any deals with candidates for better ratings nor will they give a candidate a better rating in exchange for a donation.
The following is a key to reading their ratings from the GRNC website:
PAR/DIS: Candidate’s party and district. “D”=Democrat, “L”=Libertarian, “R”=Republican. Number is district number.
SURVEY: The percentages listed depict agreement between a given candidate and our control group (e.g. an “80” under the “Survey” section means 80% of the candidate’s answers agreed with the Conservative Gun Owners). “NR”means the candidate failed to return the survey.
VOTE: Votes are more accurate than surveys and should be given more attention in determining candidate stance. Where available, this column indicates how often candidates’ votes agree with the control group of gun owners (e.g. a “90” under “Voting Record” indicates candidate’s voting record agrees 90% of the time with what was desired by control group).
OTHER: Derived from evaluations by other gun groups, bill sponsorship, etc.
EVAL: The evaluation is not a rating. It estimates percentage of time candidate is expected to agree with the Conservative Gun Owners.
