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1. Sen. Kate Brown: 7.94

2. Rep. Chuck Carpenter: 7.61

3. Sen. Ken Baker: 7.36

4. Rep. Margaret Carter: 7.06

5. Rep. Tom Brian: 6.99

6. Rep. Frank Shields: 6.73

7. Rep. Randall Edwards: 6.70

8. Rep. Jo Ann Bowman: 6.68

9. Rep. Jim Hill: 6.56

10. Sen. Avel Gordly: 6.43

11. Rep. Ken Strobeck: 6.42

12. Rep. Kurt Schrader: 6.33

13. Sen. Ginny Burdick: 6.31

14. Sen. Verne Duncan: 6.29

15. Sen. Jeannette Hamby: 6.25

16. Rep. George Eighmey: 6.19

17. Sen. Thomas Hartung: 6.10

18. Sen. Randy Leonard: 6.05

19. Rep. Dan Gardner: 5.95

20. Sen. Randy Miller: 5.90

21. Rep. John Minnis: 5.87

22. Rep. Richard Devlin: 5.63

23. Rep. Ron Adams: 5.51

24. Sen. John Lim: 5.41

25. Rep. Larry Sowa: 5.21

26. Rep. Chris Beck: 4.85

27. Rep. Mike Fahey: 4.85

28. Rep. Lynn Snodgrass: 4.72

29. Rep. Ryan Deckert: 4.48

30. Rep. Jane Lokan: 4.11

31. Rep. Ron Sunseri: 4.05

32. Rep. Anitra Rasmussen: 3.88

33. Rep. Charles Starr: 3.67

34. Sen. Eileen Qutub: 3.40

35. Rep. Lonnie Roberts: 3.39

36. Sen. Thomas Wilde: 3.37

Willamette Week's Biennial Ranking of Metro-Area Lawmakers

by David Smigelski, dsmigelski@wweek.com

Reader Beware: What follows is largely gossip and opinion. It's also probably the most honest appraisal you're going to read anywhere about the people we and our neighbors sent to Salem.

Continuing a 22-year tradition, Willamette Week circulated blank report cards around the Capitol, asking lobbyists, staffers, reporters and a few downstate legislators to grade the 12 senators and 24 representatives from the Portland area. We granted them anonymity to encourage candor.

The results of our 12th biennial aren't pretty. With just a few exceptions, the scores are abysmally low. If we subjected legislators to the same absolute grading scale they've imposed on Oregon students, almost half would have flunked. Instead, we graded them on a curve. It was the least we could do. Some of what follows is going to be painful.

Behind the low scores and catty comments are a few larger stories.

First, although this session was unsurprisingly dominated by budget issues, the 1997 Legislature will go down in history as the one that declared war on the voters. Lawmakers tinkered with--or in some cases gutted--a host of laws passed by the voters, from bear and cougar hunting to doctor-assisted suicide, term limits, property-tax limitations and the minimum-wage increase.

Second, it's the year when a small but influential contingent of right-wing moralists divided the chambers with an ambitious package of conservative social issues, from anti-gay and anti-abortion bills to pro-police and pro-military legislation. The Portland contingent, far from being part of the solution, was often a big part of the problem. Contrary to what you might think, the most conservative members of the Legislature come from the metro area, not from the rural hinterlands. Even the most liberal metro-area Democrats, so good at criticizing their conservative rivals, went along meekly at times, voting to prohibit gay marriage and recriminalize marijuana.

Third, the 1997 session was shaped, in part, by the specter of term limits, which will send as many as 24 lawmakers looking for new horizons next year, unless voters approve a legislative effort to relax the law in November. Voters instituted term limits in 1992, restricting lawmakers to two four-year Senate terms, three two-year House terms or 12 years total. Senate Joint Resolution 40, scheduled for the ballot in November, would keep the overall 12-year limit, but would let legislators serve the entire time in either chamber. The move is aimed at stemming the loss of expertise, as supporters complain that legislators are being forced out just when they've learned their jobs. Judging from the disorganization and confusion that have marked the 1997 session, they may have a point.

The massive turnover could also account in part for the rash of low scores in this year's ranking. The Portland delegation is amazingly green, with 11 first-timers and just seven lawmakers who have served more than three sessions. Gone are some of the top-rated veterans from sessions past--such as former senators Shirley Gold, Stan Bunn, Ron Cease and Dick Springer--who brought institutional memory and clout. The good news is that several rookies excelled, with three state reps--Randall Edwards, Jo Ann Bowman and Jim Hill--making the top 10.

Twenty-five Capitol insiders completed our written surveys, and another dozen consented to off-the-record interviews to fill in some of the blanks. We asked them to grade legislators on a scale of 1 to 10--10 being the highest--in four categories: brains (intelligence and savvy), integrity (philosophical consistency and refusal to compromise principles under pressure from special interests or peers), diligence (a propensity to work hard) and clout (the ability to get things done).

We don't claim that this survey is scientific or objective. It is important to note that a high score doesn't mean Willamette Week agrees with a legislator's politics, nor does a low score suggest the opposite. Rather, the ratings provide a measure of ability as judged by the people who watch the Legislature every day.