Conservative group launches 'Naughty or Nice' list on taxes

By Alexandra Jaffe - 12/07/12 03:39 PM ET

Americans For Prosperity has launched a "Naughty or Nice" list to highlight lawmakers the conservative group says are either on the wrong or right side of the tax reform debate.

The "naughty" list reads like a roster of lawmakers likely to face primary challenges from the right, largely because of their positions on tax increases or spending cuts.

It includes Sens. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), as well as Reps. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), Pete King (R-Iowa) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).

Chambliss recently pushed back against Grover Norquist's no-tax pledge and in doing so indicated he might be open to raising taxes on wealthy Americans, a plank of President Obama's deal to avert the "fiscal cliff" that Republicans have thus far refused to accept.

The Georgia Republican, however, was vulnerable long before his comments on the no-tax pledge because of his work across the aisle on immigration and the federal debt.

Graham, too, said he'd be willing to violate the Norquist pledge and has long been in conservative crosshairs for his initial work with Democrats on immigration and climate-change legislation, as well as his votes for Obama's Supreme Court nominees.

Cole has been targeted by Americans for Tax Reform previously because of his comments in favor of a deal proposed by Obama to avert the fiscal cliff. And King indicated recently he doesn't feel bound to the Norquist pledge.

The "nice" list features no Democrats. It includes Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), as well as Reps. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) and Steve Scalise (R-La.).

Most on the nice list have the backing of the Tea Party and are staunch fiscal conservatives.

DeMint will resign in January to join the conservative Heritage Foundation, and Mulvaney is a possible contender for the seat.