Announcing the Release of the 135th Ohio General Assembly’s (2023-2024) and the 168th New Hampshire General Court’s (2023-2024) 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 135th Ohio General Assembly and the 168th New Hampshire General (2023-2024) legislative sessions. 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 that legislators sponsor, how far those bills advance through the legislative process, and the substantive significance of the proposals.
With the release of Ohio and New Hampshire our state-level data initiative continues to grow—building on earlier reports from Montana and Georgia. Additional states will be added in the coming months as we work toward full national coverage.
Highlights from the Ohio and New Hampshire SLES (2023–2024)
- Top Performers: We identify the top 10, top 5, and top 3 most effective lawmakers across both parties and chambers in both states, including legislators who have consistently ranked as highly effective lawmakers across multiple legislative sessions.
- Above Expectations: We highlight legislators who earned our prestigious Above Expectations designation for lawmaking effectiveness, including both experienced 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.
- Ohio Findings: In terms of broader patterns, consistent with a majority-party advantage in most states, this pattern is clearly on display in Ohio. While the SLES of minority-party lawmakers across the country on the whole averages about 0.6, the average scores for minority-party Democrats in Ohio are a bit lower than that in the House of Representatives at 0.58 and substantially lower in the Senate at a value of 0.32. These differences translate into a gap in the number of laws produced by Republicans relative to Democrats. Of the 61 laws produced in the 2023-2024 term, only 6 were sponsored by Democrats. This was also the first term when not a single bill sponsored by a Democratic Senator became law across our data going back to the mid-1990s. Given that Democrats held about a third of the seats in the House, this nearly 10:1 ratio in laws sponsored by Republicans versus Democrats is notably out of proportion with their relative seat shares.
- New Hampshire Findings: In terms of broader patterns, our data show that the New Hampshire General Court achieves a much greater balance in lawmaking effectiveness across parties than is found in most states across the country. While the SLES of minority-party lawmakers across the country on the whole averages about 0.6, the average scores for minority-party Democrats in the New Hampshire House of Representatives are notably higher at 0.74, and nearly on par with the majority party in the Senate at an average value of 0.93. Such egalitarianism translates reasonably well into the number of laws produced by the parties. Although nearly 400 laws resulted from the bills sponsored by majority-party Republicans in 2023-2024, Democratic-sponsored bills resulted in more than 200 laws across the term. Such a pattern indicates that both parties were active and effective in the lawmaking process despite unified Republican governance in the state.
You can explore the full report and detailed findings below:
