The Georgia Chamber of Commerce released its Legislative Scorecard for the 2011-2012 General Assembly. The scorecard includes midterm grades for state House and Senate members based upon their votes on legislation deemed important to economic growth and job creation. This is the first year the chamber has included letter grades in this report.

During the 2011 legislative session, chamber members identified 11 bills to include in the report. Legislators were assigned midterm grades of A, B, C, or U based on 11 chamber bills on the scorecard in the House and 10 bills in the Senate. To receive a grade, the legislator must have been present to vote for 50 percent of the total scorecard votes. If the legislator was not present for 50 percent of the votes, they received an 'N/A' grade.

The legislation voted on covered areas such as health care, education and economic development.

In the Senate, locals Bill Heath and Barry Loudermilk faired well. Loudermilk received an A+, while Heath was given a B. Newcomer State Rep. Christian Coomer -- given a B -- received a higher mark than his counterpart Rep. Paul Battles, who was graded at a C.

A final grade will be given to each elected official following the 2012 session of the Georgia General Assembly.