You may recall that I gave Sen. Raymond Finney, Republican state senator representing the 8th district from Blount and Sevier counties, high marks for his communications with constituents through his websites and other venues. Then I had to take some of it back.

A couple of days ago, we got a fancy mailing from Sen. Finney with his legislative scorecard, listing votes on issues of interest and status of legislation he introduced. His report card reminded me why I had to take some of it back.

Read more after the jump...

His legislative scorecard fails to mention a private act he introduced and got passed. This legislation exempted portions of the Pellissippi Parkway from Scenic Highway designation restrictions. As it turns out, this was clearly aimed at moving the Alcoa "R&D" park project along. Before I knew about any of that, I had e-mailed him asking what his bill was all about. I got a non-answer in the form of a high school civics lesson on private acts, with no mention of any Alcoa "R&D" park project.

His scorecard also blames the last minute death of the minimum wage bill on the excuse that "more committee work [is] needed." He fails to mention that the bill was kicking around for months, and that the Senate killed it at the last minute by loading it down with so much garbage that nobody knew what they were voting on. When I e-mailed him about it earlier, he gave me the same song and dance, blaming it all on parliamentary procedure and whatnot. He has never said where he stands on the issue.

What I would like to see is a straight up or down vote on a minimum wage increase, without all the exemptions, exclusions, and distractions loaded on by the GOP. I'd like to see where our state legislators, including Sen. Finney, stand on it.

Sen. Finney seems like a sincere guy. Judging from the issues he talks about, he's a certifiable wingnut. But at least he's a sincere certifiable wingnut. And as a wingnut, I suppose he represents his constituency. But he ought to be careful bragging about being "open" and "transparent" if he's going to be disingenuous when he's called upon to account for his votes.