Republican State Sen. Raymond Finney, who represents Blount Co. and portions of Sevier Co. in the Tennessee Senate, has a massive, two-page ad in today's Maryville Daily Times summarizing this year's session, with his comments on the various legislation passed.

Although I don't agree with Sen. Finney's politics on a wide range of issues, I have always given him credit [1] where credit is due for his accessibility, open communication with constituents, and communications outreach (with a couple [2] of exceptions [3]). Although he generally does not represent my views, I'm the minority in Blount Co. so he effectively represents his mostly conservative constituency.

Here's the web edition [4] of Sen. Finney's legislative update ad that ran in today's paper. It's as good a summary of the session as you will see anywhere, although not all the controversial issues [5] are discussed.

Even though he ran as a firebrand conservative, Sen. Finney's positions on the issues mentioned reveal that he may be more moderate than he lets on. Or maybe that's the impression he wants to portray.

By my tally, based on his positions and my interpretation of the generally accepted party line on the issues, Sen. Finney scores a 12 on the Democrat/liberal scale and an 11 on the Republican/conservative scale (out of a possible 26). If you weight it based on the intensity of his feelings on a particular issue, it comes out only slightly more conservative.

Of course, wedge issues such as abortion and gay rights weren't in the spotlight during this session, probably because it isn't an election year. A more thorough review of all his votes [6] would probably suggest a more conservative record. But at least he documents them.

(It's curious that he voted "yes" on every piece of legislation put before the Senate except the very few times he abstained, and that nearly every bill passed unanimously. I wonder if that has something to do with letting them change their votes to tidy up their records as long as it doesn't change the outcome?)

(UPDATE: ACK previously discussed the vote "do overs" [7]. Not sure this is such a great idea, for exactly the reasons he states.)