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Here is some information that may help to defend my record against Evans’ twisted half-truths. The first section is some facts that I put together and the next section was written by a supporter.
First Section:
1. Representative Bill Cook sponsored or co-sponsored about 145 bills last year. However Evans said on the TV Henry Hinton forum that Bill had only sponsored one bill.
2. Evans accused Representative Bill Cook of voting for ObamaCare on the TV Henry Hinton forum show and his mailer because he voted for HB 115 which is a bill to carry out the federal mandate to North Carolina to set up insurance exchanges. North Carolina has no choice as to whether the insurance exchanges are created or not, the only question is whether North Carolina folks do it or federal folks. All but 3 Republicans voted for this bill, so that North Carolina folks would be in charge of these exchanges. If Evans is saying that I voted for ObamaCare with this vote, then he is saying that all but 3 of the Republicans in the House (65) are for ObamaCare. Clearly this is not the case.
3. Representative Bill Cook voted for HB 2 which is a bill requiring North Carolina to stop ObamaCare in the courts. He has been rated the 4th most conservative member of the House. In light of these facts, can Evans still maintain that Bill supports ObamaCare?
4. Evans left the Republican Party to run for office as a Democrat in 2010 and then left the Democrat Party in 2011 to run against Representative Cook. Evans is a political opportunist with no principals.
5. I co-sponsored HB 810 because the lenders testified that if they did not get an increase in the interest rates they could no longer make these small loans.
How the Effectiveness Rankings Are Done
The Center’s effectiveness rankings are based on surveys completed by the legislators themselves, by registered lobbyists who are based in North Carolina and who regularly work in the General Assembly, and by capital news reporters. These three groups are asked to rate each legislator’s effectiveness on the basis of participation in committee work, skill at guiding bills through committee and in floor debates, and general knowledge or expertise in special fields. The survey respondents also are asked to consider the respect legislators command from their peers, his or her ethics, the political power they hold (by virtue of office, longevity, or personal skills), their ability to sway the opinions of fellow legislators, and their aptitude for the overall legislative process.
This year’s rankings mark the 18th time the Center has undertaken this comprehensive survey. The first edition evaluated the performance of the 1977-78 General Assembly. The response rate to the survey continues to be very high. Sixty-three of the 120 House members (53 percent) responded to the Center’s survey, as did 24 (49 percent) of the 49 Senators (Sen. James Forrester, R-Gaston, died in October 2011), 144 of the 407 registered lobbyists who regularly work in the legislature and are based in North Carolina (35 percent), and 6 of 22 capital news correspondents (27 percent) – all well above accepted standards of statistical validity. The overall response rate was 40 percent.
Here are some of my thoughts on this scoring.
First it is not only the legislators grading themselves but it is also the registered lobbyists and the capitol news correspondents. We know that neither lobbyists nor news correspondents are ever biased and are always impartial! (NOT) I feel that the inclusion of lobbyists and reporters makes this an invalid survey with regard to effectiveness and relegates any results as subjective.
Second the statistics cannot be representative of the Legislature as only 53 percent of the Legislature answered the survey. That means that 47 percent of the Legislature is not represented due to any response. So how can you get a true grade if there is a 47 percent information deficit? The Senate was even worse with a 51 percent information deficit. I am not a statistical sleuth but in my opinion the lack of participation by the Legislature and the Senate should make the survey invalid. That means that the weighted scores are from lobbyists and reporters! I don't remember casting any votes for them at the ballot box.
What is important to me is that you introduced/co-sponsored nearly 150 pieces of legislation in last years session. That is far more than your predecessor did. I am sure that you had to grit your teeth on a few of them such as HB 115 that had to pass to enable the State to participate in the Federal mandate of Obamacare in the event that the Supreme Court did not reject the law as Un-Constitutional. There could be some others that were not palatable for you either. But there is only one perfect being and neither of us qualifies for that title.
I hope this helps.
Bill Cook
http://cookinthesenate.com/category/1/campaign-news-and-updates.html
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