The list

Friday, Jan. 27, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo

The most effective delegates come from diverse backgrounds and districts.

With the 2006 elections on everyone’s mind and the legislative session fully under way, The Gazette is continuing its quadrennial tradition of ranking the members of the General Assembly.

Things have changed.

From the list four years ago, seven of the top 10 lawmakers are gone: They either lost re-election bids (Barbara A. Hoffman, Robert R. Neall, Casper R. Taylor Jr.), moved on to other government jobs (U.S. Rep. Christopher Van Hollen Jr. and Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp), left the legislature all together (John Adams Hurson) or died (Howard P. Rawlings).

Not surprisingly, the presiding officers in the House and the Senate again finished at the top of this year’s lists with some of their key lieutenants and committee leaders not far behind.

Democrats who control both chambers make up the majority of the most effective lists — no surprise since so much of the State House crowd we sent ballots to are Democrats — but some Republicans are there, too. Some newer lawmakers are making enough of a splash to land a spot on the most effective lists, while some of the most experienced and divisive legislators have landed on the least effective lists.

We sent ballots to a cross-section of about 100 State House insiders — lobbyists representing a wide range of interests, members of the Ehrlich administration, Democratic and Republican operatives and, yes, reporters — to rank the legislators based on how effective they are.

Gauging effectiveness is a purely subjective exercise. For some legislators, it means introducing and passing bills. For others, it means working behind the scenes to shape legislation or bring home the bacon. Effectiveness is also about those intangible traits such as charm, smarts or personality that produce results.

This is neither a definitive nor scientific survey; it’s meant for fun and to spark debate. The results, however, provide a snapshot of how lawmakers are viewed in Maryland political circles.

[Victoria L. Gruber, the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee’s top staffer, received a couple of votes for most effective in the Senate as did James C. ‘‘Chip” DiPaula Jr., Ehrlich’s budget secretary turned chief of staff. But we only asked for assessments of elected lawmakers, so those votes were tossed.]

Here’s how the survey worked: Each respondent ranked the 10 most effective and 10 least effective members of the Senate and the 20 most effective and the 20 least effective members of the House. The top senator on each ballot received 10 points, the second received 9 points and so on. The top House member received 20 points, the second received 19 points and so on. The same rules applied to the least effective lists.

About 30 percent of the ballots were returned.

We also asked respondents — with the assurances of anonymity — to provide comments if they wanted. We’ve included some of those.

Full lists:

Senators

Delegates