Seven out of the 27 members of Florida’s Congressional delegation voted for the public interest less than 10 percent of the time between Jan. 22, 2003 and March 16, 2005, according to Florida PIRG’s annual Congressional Scorecard.

The scorecard also recognized Reps. Corrine Brown (Jacksonville), Jim Davis (Tampa), Robert Wexler (Boca Raton) and Sen. Bill Nelson as public interest heroes. They received scores of over 80 percent for consistently voting in the public interest.

Florida PIRG distributed the scorecards to tens of thousands of households in Florida as part of its door-to-door campaign to protect Florida’s treasured waterways.

“At the behest of special interests, Congress has voted to allow clear cutting in our national forests and to weaken consumer protections,” said Florida PIRG Director, Mark Ferrulo.

“It failed to cut global warming pollution, failed to increase automobile fuel economy and failed to make polluters pay for toxic waste cleanups,” he continued.

“These scorecards are an important tool to educate the public about the voting records of their elected officials and to help citizens hold those officials accountable,” Ferrulo said.

In addition to tracking public interest votes, the scorecards also list information about campaign contributions, biographical data, past Florida PIRG scores and telephone numbers for citizens to contact their elected officials.