Our legislators’ report cards have arrived.
Rep. Susi Hamilton (D-New Hanover), for one, saw a surge in her rank among lawmakers statewide, while Sen. Bill Rabon (R-Brunswick) shot into the top 10 for work in the N.C. Senate.
That’s as reported in the biennial “effectiveness rankings” from the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research (CPPR), a nonpartisan nonprofit that issues such reports after each long session of the General Assembly (whose last one spanned most of 2013). The ranks are based on survey responses from legislators, lobbyists and capital reporters.
In the 50-member Senate, Rabon was ranked seventh-most effective, up from 18th in 2011. The Southport Republican is in his second term and currently co-chairs the chamber’s committees on finance and transportation department appropriations. He also chairs the committee charged with studying revenue laws.
Reached by phone Friday, Rabon said he was “flattered” by the report.
“I work with a good group, that I can tell you,” he said.
Asked to what he could attribute the rise in rank, Rabon cited “hard work. I put in 90 hour weeks. Hard work and doing my best for the entire state. I work for 9 million people and try to never forget where I came from. My district is first and foremost, but I always say if something is good for North Carolina, it’s good for my district, too.”
His Senate District 8 includes Brunswick, Pender and Bladen counties with a smidgen of New Hanover (including downtown Wilmington).
Recent story: Two Democrats vying to challenge Rabon in N.C. Senate District 8
Like Rabon, “Republicans who were first elected in 2010 and who are serving their second term in 2013-2014 made big gains in rankings this year,” CPPR noted.
Sen. Thom Goolsby, the second-term New Hanover County Republican not seeking re-election this year, came in with a rank of 14. It was 21 in 2011.
Goolsby was not immediately available for comment.
Related story: Goolsby ending his Senate role
Hamilton, a Wilmington Democrat also in her second term, saw the state’s biggest improvement for a House member. While she was ranked 102 out of 120 in 2011, she shot up 60 spots to a rank of 42 in 2013.
Ask why she thought she improved, she cited leadership in a bipartisan effort to toughen laws against human trafficking. She was a primary sponsor of a House bill that ran concurrently with Senate Bill 122, a Goolsby bill that went into law requiring pimps who sell minors into prostitution to register as sex offenders after conviction. She also noted bipartisan work still in progress to restore railroad lines from Wallace to Castle Hayne, a project meant to boost business with better transportation options.
“I am very pleased because this is largely a peer review,” Hamilton said of the CPPR report Friday. “It’s encouraging that my fellow legislators and colleagues at the [General Assembly] consider my work to be effective.”
The ranks are based on surveys completed by legislators, registered lobbyists based in North Carolina, and by reporters who directly cover the legislature, according to CPPR. The three groups are asked to appraise each lawmaker for his or her participation with committees, ability to guide bills through committees and floor debates, and level of knowledge in specific fields.
The legislator’s reputation (in terms of respect from peers), ethics and political influence are also factors.
CPPR said the 2013 survey period was October-December and that it drew participation from 53 percent of the House’s membership; 66 percent from the Senate’s membership; 36 percent of the 438 registered lobbyists; and 17 percent of the 36 capital news reporters.
The 2013 legislative session was a controversial one, with Democrats and Republicans often at complete odds over efforts like those that led to changes in the state’s tax system and how elections are conducted. Effects of the latter law change include a shortened early voting period and, by 2016, a requirement that voters show a valid photo ID before they can cast a ballot.
Area Republicans like Goolsby and Rabon supported the law change, which they said will make elections more secure and legitimate; Democrats like Hamilton opposed it for its perceived hardships on voters, particularly low-income and senior-aged, who might not have a valid, up-to-date ID, among other issues.
Also charting improvement in the CPPR report was Rep. Frank Iler (R-Brunswick). His rank of 47 was a 13-slot improvement.
Iler has served in the House since 2009.
Measures of improvement or slippage were of course not available for first-term legislators like Reps. Rick Catlin (R-New Hanover), Ted Davis (R-New Hanover) and Chris Millis (R-Pender).
Catlin, however, had a rank of 52 for his work in 2013.
Millis was ranked 57.
Davis was ranked 63.
In the Senate, President Pro Tem Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) was ranked first for effectiveness; in the House, it was Speaker Thom Tillis (R-Mecklenburg).
Ranked at the bottom were Sen. Angela Bryant (D-Nash; she served three terms in the House before being appointed to the Senate in January 2013) and Rep. Evelyn Terry (D-Forsyth, in her first term).
Click here to see the full report, which also ranks legislators by attendance.
The General Assembly will convene for its next short session May 14.
Ben Brown is a news reporter at Port City Daily. Reach him at [email protected] or (910) 772-6335. On Twitter: @benbrownmedia
