Announcing the Release of the 56th Arizona Legislature (2023-2024), the 2023-2024 Idaho Legislature, and the 2023-2024 Vermont Legislature Legislative Sessions 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 56th Arizona Legislature (2023-2024), the 2023-2024 Idaho Legislature, and the 2023-2024 Vermont Legislature 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 legislators sponsor, how far those bills advance through the legislative process, and the substantive significance of the proposals.
With the release of Arizona, Idaho, and Vermont, 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 Arizona, Idaho, and Vermont SLES (2023–2024):
- Top Performers: We identify the top 10 and top 5 most effective lawmakers across both parties and chambers in all three states, including legislators who have consistently ranked highly across multiple legislative sessions.
- Above Expectations: We highlight members 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.
- Arizona Findings: In terms of broader patterns, partisanship continues to be strongly associated with lawmaking in Arizona. While the SLES of minority-party lawmakers across the country on the whole averages about 0.6, the scores for minority-party members in both chambers in Arizona average much lower—around 0.23. While Democrats are disadvantaged at lawmaking, they have not been completely shut out of the legislative process, although nearly so. For example, in the 2023-2024 term, Democratic legislators introduced 20 bills that became law. In contrast, the number of laws sponsored by Republicans in that term totaled 442. This approximately 20:1 ratio is significantly out of proportion to the number of seats the parties hold in the chambers, which have been nearly equal, and well beyond what is seen in most legislatures across the country.
- Vermont Findings: In terms of broader patterns, the 2023-2024 term featured more of a partisan divide in the Senate than in prior terms. This is reflected in the SLES of the minority party (Republicans) averaging 0.30, the lowest level seen since the beginning of our data in 1993 (and half the SLES of minority parties across the country overall). That translates into just 3 laws arising from all Republican proposals in the Vermont Senate, compared to 50 from Democratic Senators. Republicans did not fare too much better in the House of Representatives, where they combined to produce 18 laws (with 7 of them coming from the highly effective Rep. Marcotte). Indeed, across both chambers combined, Republicans sponsored 21 bills that became law compared to 145 from Democrats: roughly a 7:1 ratio in favor of Democrats.
You can explore the full report and detailed findings below:
Photo by King of Hearts, Wikipedia.
