News-Record.com

The N.C. Center for Public Policy Research has its annual legislative effectiveness rankings out. The rankings are based on surveys of legislators, lobbyists and we scruffy media types.

Here's the thing to keep in mind about the rankings. A few of them are blazingly obvious and beyond dispute. Of course Sen. Marc Basnight is #1 in the Senate, he runs the joint. Is anyone going argue with Rep. Thomas Wright of Wilmington being ranked dead last in effectiveness? Probably not, considering the Speaker took away all his power during the session and the House ended up booting him this spring.

The bulk of the rankings I look at and think to myself, "Yeah, that makes sense." I would have put Rep. Hugh Holliman of Davidson County in the Top 10 somewhere, so his rank at #3 makes sense to me. And I first balked at Rep. Nelson Cole of Rockingham ranking as high as #15, but checking back on his bill list and status, I'm willing to go along.

There are a few rankings that I would quibble with, and a couple are in the Guilford Delegation. So here's are the Center's rankings and my comments for the folks who represent the paper's circulation area:

Senate: ranked out of 50

Phil Berger, #14. Berger is the Republican minority leader in the Senate. He's the second-highest ranking Republican on the survey. (The highest ranking is Fletcher Hartsell at #9, who has a judiciary chairmanship to his name.) I might have ranked Berger a few notches higher, but he probably lost some points for being forced to be the spokesman for some of his party's ideological (and ultimately loosing) stands on the floor.

Stan Bingham, #26. Bingham has gotten along with Democratic majority, shown up on a budget conference committee and gotten some mid-level pieces of legislation done. No quibbles here.

Katie Dorsett, #24. Dorsett is the minority whip in the Senate but has not pursued the most aggressive personal legislative agenda.

Kay Hagan, #7. Hagan is an appropriations co-chairman and is ranked right along side of her two colleagues who lead the panel. Once you get past the top two rankings in the Senate (Basnight and Rules Chairman Tony Rand) spots three through 8 are pretty interchangeable.

House: ranked out of 119

Alma Adams, #44. Really? A Co-chairman of the appropriations committee and leader of the Legislative Black Caucus ranks lower than the chairman of committees that handle lower profile legislation? She is up 17 spots from last year. And you probably could make an argument that she was bogged down with having to answer questions about her caucus' activities and some of her members' legal problems (paging Thomas Wright.) But for her to be 18 spots behind Maggie Jeffus, who has the same kind of committee profile, seems to be a bit off.

John Blust, #111. Blust should not be in the bottom 10. Not only has he gotten some of his legislative moving this year, but he frequently make contributions in committee meeting to make important, but unheralded, tweaks in legislation. Blust probably gets docked points because he's given to passionately defending his ideological positing, even if that position is a looser on a particular vote. But he is ranked below some folks (Republicans and Democrats) who make far less by way of tangible contributions to the legislative process.

Pricey Harrison, #38. She's up 34 points from last year. Harrison's gotten a reputation as a leading environmental spokesperson in the legislature and as a committee chairman had a pretty high profile during the fight over S3, the renewable energy bill. Like other progressives, she's done better under the Speakership of Joe Hackney than they did under former Speaker Jim Black.

Maggie Jeffus, #26. She's up 20 spots. She now has rank as an appropriations cochair and a fair bit of seniority. 'Nuff said.

Earl Jones, #60. He's up 26 spots. Okay, he's got two chairmanships: Local Government II and Science and Technology. Also, he's got a few bills enrolled into state law this year. However, he probably got moved up on the strength of his mouth: Jones talks a lot of the floor and does not shy away from controversial positions so he's pretty well known.

Laura Wiley, #86. She's up 10 points but I would have made the case she should be in the top two-thirds - #80 or above. Wiley has worked well with the Democratic majority and even as a Republican has helped shepherd some bills through the General Assembly. But she's not a big talker on the floor and a lot of her issues aren't high on the news radar.