The four special interest groups I have chosen to discuss are: the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the Family Research Council (FRC) (who both hold conservative views), the National Abortion Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL), and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) (who hold more liberal viewpoints). Each of these groups have given Representative Jim DeMint a percentage score based, predominantly, on the number of times that he voted in favor of their position on bills that concerned them the most, however, other influences such as opinions, party loyalties, and sources of campaign financing are sometimes factored in as well. One reason for the scoring is to inform the group's members and non-members just how in sync the candidate's views and/or actions are with the issues important to the group. This could signal them to either give their support to that candidate or to his or her competition. Another reason is to try and influence public opinion to shift in favor of a candidate that supports the group's issues. They do this by giving a candidate a really low score, or by singing the praises of their preferred candidate while highlighting the lows of the other. Each group has its own methods for computing, and presenting the scores so as to build support for a candidate who will most likely vote in their favor.
The National Right to Life Committee advocates for the life and rights of any human being either an unborn baby or clone. The NRLC gave DeMint a score of 100% even though he did not always vote the way they wanted. They did not count toward his score any bills in which DeMint voted against their preferred position. They, instead, split the bill up into its different revisions and counted only those revisions that he voted in their favor. For the most part DeMint has voted in accordance with the views held by the NRLC giving them a good reason to try and get him re-elected.
