Effective Lawmakers – Center for Effective Lawmaking

The Legislative Success of “Giant Killers” in the U.S. House

The Legislative Success of “Giant Killers” in the U.S. House Monday, November 3, 2025In modern congressional elections, fewer than 10% of candidates who run against sitting members of Congress win and yet they comprise as much as 30% of the House in any given congress. In this forthcoming paper in Political Science Quarterly, Sean Theriault, Professor at The University of Texas at Austin and Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) Faculty Affiliate, along with Jared Hrebenar and Isabel Reyna, examine the legislative effectiveness of those relatively rare challengers who knock off incumbents.…

0 Comments

November 3, 2025

Announcing the Release of the 82nd Nevada General Assembly State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES)

default

State Legislative Effectiveness Scores / State Legislatures

Announcing the Release of the 82nd Nevada General Assembly State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES)

Announcing the Release of the 82nd Nevada 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 82nd Nevada 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…

0 Comments

October 31, 2025

State Legislative Effectiveness Scores / State Legislatures

Announcing the Release of the 2023-2024 California State Legislature State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES)

Announcing the Release of the 2023-2024 California State Legislature 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 2023-2024 California legislative session 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…

0 Comments

October 23, 2025

State Legislative Effectiveness Scores / State Legislatures

Announcing the Release of the 103rd Illinois General Assembly State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES)

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…

Comments Off

October 8, 2025

State Legislative Effectiveness Scores / State Legislatures

Announcing the Release of the 207th Pennsylvania General Assembly State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES)

Announcing the Release of the 207th Pennsylvania 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 207th Pennsylvania 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…

Comments Off

October 1, 2025

About the CEL / Board of Advisors / Conversations with Lawmakers

The CEL on “The Weekly” and “Staffer” Podcasts

The CEL on "The Weekly" and "Staffer" Podcasts Tuesday, August 12, 2025Tom Wickham and Shuwanza Goff, two members of the Center for Effective Lawmaking’s (CEL) Board of Advisors, were recently featured on leading political podcasts, C-SPAN’s The Weekly and Staffer, offering their expert insights into the inner workings of Congress and public service.Tom Wickham is the former Parliamentarian of the U.S. House of Representatives, and currently serves as Senior Vice President of state and local policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. On this episode of The Weekly podcast -…

Comments Off

August 12, 2025

Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / State Legislative Effectiveness Scores

Legislative Effectiveness, Progressive Ambition, and Electoral Success

Legislative Effectiveness, Progressive Ambition, and Electoral Success Monday, June 30, 2025In this Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper, Co-Directors Craig Volden (University of Virginia) and Alan Wiseman (Vanderbilt University), and Faculty Affiliates Danielle Thomsen (University of California-Irvine) and Sarah Treul (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) examine the question of whether effective state lawmakers are more likely than ineffective state lawmakers to be elected to Congress. The authors draw on the CEL's dataset of State Legislative Effectiveness Scores from 1993 to 2018 to examine the relationship between lawmaker effectiveness and the…

Comments Off

June 30, 2025

Conversations with Lawmakers

Discussing Effective Lawmaking with NM State Senator Mimi Stewart

Discussing Effective Lawmaking with New Mexico State Senator Mimi Stewart New Mexico State Senator Mimi Stewart has been a leader in New Mexico politics for nearly three decades. First elected to the New Mexico Senate in 2014, she previously served in the New Mexico House of Representatives from 1995 until her Senate appointment. Over the course of her legislative career, she has held several key leadership roles, including Senate Democratic Whip (2018–2021) and President Pro Tempore of the New Mexico Senate, a position she has held since 2021. She currently…

Comments Off

May 27, 2025

State Legislative Effectiveness Scores / State Legislatures

Announcing the Release of the State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES)

Announcing the Release of the State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is proud to announce the release of our State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) — a groundbreaking effort to measure the lawmaking effectiveness of individual legislators in all 99 state legislative chambers in the United States over recent decades. These scores capture the lawmaking effectiveness of the members of each legislature based on the number of bills they sponsor, how far those bills progress through the different stages of the legislative process, and the substantive…

Comments Off

April 29, 2025

Conversations with Lawmakers

Discussing Effective Lawmaking with Representative Gus Bilirakis

Discussing Effective Lawmaking with Representative Gus Bilirakis Friday, April 24, 2025Representative Gus Bilirakis has represented Florida in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2007, and he currently represents Florida’s 12th congressional district. He has a well-established track record of being successful at advancing his sponsored bills through the legislative process, and he has been identified by the Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) as having one of the longest active streaks of being in our prestigious “exceeds expectations” in lawmaking effectiveness category. He has also been often recognized as being the…

Comments Off

April 24, 2025