Announcing the Release of the 103rd Illinois General Assembly State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES)
The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is proud to announce the release of our State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) for the 103rd Illinois General Assembly (2023–2024). This initiative is part of our broader effort to measure the lawmaking effectiveness of individual legislators in all 99 state legislative chambers in the United States.
These scores capture lawmaking effectiveness by tracking the number of bills legislators sponsor, how far those bills advance through the legislative process, and the substantive significance of the proposals.
With the release of Illinois, our state-level data initiative continues to grow—building on earlier reports from Montana, Georgia, and Pennsylvania. Additional states will be added in the coming months as we work toward full national coverage.
Highlights from the Illinois SLES (2023–2024)
- Top Performers: We identify the top 10 most effective lawmakers from each party in both the Illinois House and Senate, including legislators who have consistently ranked highly across multiple General Assemblies.
- Exceeds Expectations: We highlight members who earned our prestigious Exceeds Expectations designation for lawmaking effectiveness, including both seasoned legislators with sustained records and first-term lawmakers who quickly distinguished themselves among their peers.
- Majority Party Advantage: Consistent with CEL research, majority-party legislators were generally more effective lawmakers, reflecting structural advantages such as agenda-setting power and committee leadership.
- Leadership-Driven Bill Sponsorship Shapes Top Scores: Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch earned the highest State Legislative Effectiveness Score in the Illinois House, largely due to introducing far more bills than any other lawmaker—nearly seven times as many as the next highest scorer, Representative Jay Hoffman. This pattern reflects a broader trend in the Illinois General Assembly, where the “Four Tops” (the majority and minority party leaders in each chamber) consistently sponsor substantially more legislation than rank-and-file members. While many of these bills do not advance far in the process, the sheer volume of introductions significantly boosts leaders’ overall effectiveness scores.
You can explore the full report and detailed findings below:
Image by Daniel Schwen and licensed under the Creative Commons
