Earlier tonight, Ed Markey (D) beat Gabriel Gomez (R) in a race to take over John Kerry‘s Senate seat in Massachusetts.

Markey, who’s been a Representative for the state since 1976, earned a grade of C on the Secular Coalition for America’s congressional scorecard in 2011.

Markey’s low score came in part from his vote supporting HR 33, an amendment to the Securities Act of 1933 that allowed “certain church plans to be exempt from registration and disclosure requirements.” He also voted to reaffirm “In God We Trust” as the country’s official motto and supported legislation that gave land to the anti-atheist Boy Scouts of America.

More recently, however, when the SCA put out a scorecard just for this special Senate election (PDF), they gave him (and his opponent) an A:

The sole grade of B came from a vote Markey cast to allow courts to decide on whether the word “God” should remain in the Pledge of Allegiance.

So while he may have had some missteps in the past, Markey appears to be generally on the side of church/state separation. He’s not perfect, but he was at least better than his opponent in this election.



