With the May 29 elections rapidly approaching, the candidates are out in force and so are the groups that want to share their views of the candidates with you. Those interest groups often issue scorecards, grading candidates on selected votes from the previous legislative session. Those can tell you a lot about the candidates, and the votes they choose to highlight can tell you a lot about the graders, too. Here's a sampling of critiques from some of the prominent interest groups.

How the ratings are calculated

• Texas Watch - Scores are calculated based on the percentage of votes Texas Watch deems favorable in subjects such as "Access to the Courts," "Homeowners and Auto Insurance" and "Protecting Polluters."
• Empower Texans - Empower Texans uses "exemplar votes on core budget and free enterprise issues that demonstrate legislators’ governing philosophy" to determine its letter grades. Legislators receive points for favorable votes, sponsorships of favorable bills or by taking the "Taxpaper Protection Pledge."
• Texas Right to Life - Texas Right to Life tracked each legislator on a number of pro-life metrics. Votes on HB15/SB16, also known as the "Sonogram Bill," and its amendments, votes on Texas Right to Life amendments to HB1, and votes on bills that effected family planning funding were tracked. Bonuses were granted for authoring or co-sponsoring pro-life bills, amendments and motions, and legislators were penalized for non pro-life efforts.
• Texas League of Conservation Voters (TLCV) - The 2011 Texas League of Conservation Voters scorecard "covers a range of votes and issues, including: renewable energy, green technologies and recycling and waste disposal." Scores are calculated based on the number of favorable votes.
• Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT) - The Young Conservatives of Texas calculate scores based on 56 votes in the House and 38 votes in the Senate that "highlight conservative public policy choices." The ratings are calculated out of 100, based on how many favorable votes a legislator made.
• Texas Eagle Forum - The Texas Eagle Forum leaned heavily on the vote for or against House Speaker Joe Straus at the beginning of the session. They opposed Straus and preface their ratings by saying "TEF considered this decision so important that we felt the vote should count for half of the points on our scorecard." The rest of their ratings are based on 25 votes each in the House and Senate.
• Texas Conservative Roundtable - The Texas Conservative Roundtable's scorecard uses "votes on bills and amendments from the 82nd Regular and Special Sessions that reflected conservative budget choices, protected the infrastructure of the state, helped ensure a healthy and educated workforce, and improved the efficiency and transparency of government."