The Children's Defense Fund Action Council has released its 2007 nonpartisan scorecard, which evaluates members' of Congress voting records on measures that directly affect children. Ten Senate and ten House votes were considered. These votes covered a range of issues including the budget, appropriations, child health and education measures. Senators and Representatives were then given a score from 0-100%, based on their votes in support of the needs of children.

"Best" Senators and Representatives for children are those with 100% support for children based on the ten votes considered. "Worst" Senators and Representatives for children are those scoring at or below 30% on the considered measures. But enough suspense, how does Colorado measure up?

Although we did not have a U.S. Senator on the "Best" list, Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO) made the "Worst" list, with a score of 30%.

Three Colorado Representatives made the "Best" list, with a 100% scorein supportof children on the 10 votes considered. Our winners are Rep. Diana DeGette (D-1st district), Rep. Edwin Perlmutter (D-7th district), and Rep. Mark Udall (D-2nd district).

And just to keep things even, we had three U.S. Representatives on the "Worst" list. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-4th district) scored just 20%. Doug Lamborn (R-5th district) managed only a 10% score. But the goose egg award goes to Representative Tom Tancredo (R-6th district), with an uninspiring 0% record in support of children. No need to despair though. Representative Tancredo announced in October that he will not seek re-election in the fall. The children of Colorado are undoubtedly grateful.

For those interested in how the presidential candidates measured up, here is the run-down:

Senator John McCain - 10%

Senator Hillary Clinton - 70%
Senator Barack Obama - 60%

The Children's Defense Fund cites that over 9 million children in this country are uninsured. 90% of these children live in households with a working parent or parents, and the majority live in two-parent households.

To see the full report from the Children's Defense Fund, cut and paste the following into your browser: http://www.childrensdefense.org/site/DocServer/2007_Scorecard_bestworst.pdf?docID=6422