Capitol Inside 06/02/2009

FIRST TEAM

HONORABLE MENTION

John Carona (R)

Warren Chisum (R)

Ellen Cohen (D)

Garnet Coleman (D)

Byron Cook (R)

Brandon Creighton (R)

Bob Deuell (R)

Joe Deshotel (D)

David Dewhurst (R)

Dawnna Dukes (D)

Rob Eissler (R)

Kevin Eltife (R)

Charlie Geren (R)

Glenn Hegar (R)

Scott Hochberg (D)

Donna Howard (D)

Carl Isett (R)

Delwin Jones (R)

Jim Keffer (R)

Edmund Kuempel (R)

David Leibowitz (D)

Trey Martinez Fischer (D)

Brian McCall (R)

Tommy Merritt (R)

Jane Nelson (R)

Steve Ogden (R)

John Otto (R)

Tan Parker (R)

Richard Raymond (D)

Allan Ritter (D)

Todd Smith (R)

Burt Solomons (R)

Larry Taylor (R)

Leticia Van de Putte (D)

Royce West (D)

John Whitmire (D)

Tommy Williams (R)

John Zerwas (R)

The Capitol Inside Best of the Legislature list for 2009 is a moderates' dream team that by no accidental coincidence reflects the center-lane approach that seemed to define the regular session that ground to a half late Monday night.

At a Texas Capitol where the House was almost evenly divided and the Senate was forced to work in a bipartisan fashion as a result of the two-thirds rule, it's probably fitting that six Republicans and six Democrats made first team this year on the web site's biennial all-star squad. The House placed seven members on the top tier of the list of the best performances by legislators during the 140-day regular session while five state senators joined them on the first team.

House Speaker Joe Straus, a San Antonio Republican who shocked the state political establishment when he won the speaker's race in January on the first day of his third term, has the distinction of Most Valuable Republican Player on the best legislators' ranking for 2009. In what could be construed as an indirect victory for Straus, Galveston State Rep. Craig Eiland, the House speaker pro tem, is the Most Valuable Democratic Player on this year's list.

The House delegation on the list of the Legislature's most outstanding performances includes Democratic State Reps. Jim Dunnam of Waco, Ruth Jones McClendon of San Antonio and Senfronia Thompson of Houston, who all were named to the first team for remarkably different reasons. Republican State Reps. Dan Branch of Dallas and Jim Pitts of Waxahachie are first team as well.

The Senate is represented on the first team by Democratic State Senators Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa of McAllen and Judith Zaffirini of Laredo on the first team along with Republican State Senators Kip Averitt of Waco, Robert Duncan of Lubbock and Florence Shapiro of Plano.

Zaffirini, Hinojosa and Dunnam are the only repeat performers on the first team just two years after achieving that same honor in the wake of the last regular session in 2007.

The list of the top 12 legislators this year is diverse with two Hispanics, Hinojosa and Zaffirini and two African-Americans in McClendon and Thompson. Three women - Shapiro, Thompson and McClendon - are first teamers in 2009.

While conservative Republicans might tend to classify most if not all of the Democrats on the first team as liberals, none of the legislators who share that distinction are apt to be found at either end of the political philosophical spectrum. It wasn't designed to be that way. That's simply how it fell into place when legislators were critiqued based on the quality of individual performances that they turned in at the Capitol during the course of the past five months.

All of the 11 House Republicans who banded behind Straus and put him in position to win the speaker's race are listed on first team or honorable mention. Whether you think those particular legislators did a good or bad job beyond that particular point doesn't change the fact that the informal nomination of Straus as the alternative speaker candidate set the stage for a complete House overhaul - good, bad or otherwise.

Joe Straus
Texas House
San Antonio Republican
Most Valuable Republican Player

The moderate San Antonio Republican lived up to every promise he made from the outset after sending shock waves through political circles with a victory in a race for House speaker that he won amazingly in January less than two days after entering it. A relative newcomer to the lower chamber in only his third regular session, Straus vowed to restore civility to a House that had been rattled by partisan bickering for several years before he assumed control of the ship. Straus pledged to bring bipartisan unity to a lower chamber that was almost evenly divided from a partisan perspective - and he delivered in a way that few at the outset of his debut stint as speaker could have ever imagined. Even after the House appeared to teeter on the verge of a partisan meltdown during the final stretch when Democrats used a five-day stalling strategy to kill a voter ID bill, the chamber was remarkably calm to the point of being almost tranquil the day after the chubbing display ended and voter ID was declared dead for the time being. When Straus was starting to catch heat for an alleged lack of leadership from colleagues on both sides of the aisle, he put those questions to rest by presiding over a budget fight that ended with an incredible unanimous vote for a two-year state spending plan. When conservative Republicans who'd been loyal to former Speaker Tom Craddick complained that Straus' nice guy approach had set the stage for the Democrats slowdown game near the end on voter ID, the speaker put on the tough guy hat and frown long enough to blast the Democrats' tactics in a way that was stern enough to earn applause from GOP leaders who'd questioned his leadership without appearing to offend the Democratic members who'd help put him in power at the start of the session. With Straus at the wheel, every one of the House's 150 members became a player if he or she wanted to be. Every member was a key part of the process. None were excluded in the Straus House. While Straus was letting the House work its will and do its own things, he kept a promise that he'd made at the start to steer clear of the debate on gambling legislation that could benefit family members who've been major players in the horse race wagering business ever since it was legalized in Texas more than 20 years ago. Straus proved to be a leader who's word is golden in more ways than one. Straus is the most valuable Republican player in 2009 just like Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst was named MVP after his first session six years ago as the leader of the upper chamber in the Capitol's east wing. Those jobs would seem to get a bit easier after a good start - and Straus has already filed the paperwork for his candidacy for a re-election campaign as House speaker when the job is up for grabs again in 2011. He'll have the inside track for the post unless Democrats win a majority in the lower chamber at the polls next year.

Craig Eiland may have put himself in position to be the leading Democratic contender in the 2011 House speaker's race if the Democrats reclaim a majority at the polls next year thanks to another fine showing at the Capitol in the regular session this year. While outstanding is par for the 14-year House veteran's course, Eiland was in a position to be an even bigger hero than he's been in years past as a result of the Gulf Coast's many pressing needs in the wake of the devastation inflicted last year by Hurricane Ike. As the House speaker pro tem who appointed to chair an Appropriations hurricane subcommittee, Eiland rode to the rescue in the kind of impressive way that folks back home have come to expect of him while leading the charge for legislation that will go a long way in putting the island city where he lives and works as an attorney back together again in the wake of the storm that blew it apart the previous year. At a time when some lawmakers were pondering the possibility of moving the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston to some dryer spot inland, Eiland used his influence and experience on the budget writing panel to secure emergency funding so the med school can be repaired without relocation and for other pressing demands that his constituents face as a result of that ferocious weather disaster that hit them head on. Eiland, who's been one of the key players on the House Insurance Committee in recent years, had an instrumental part on the conference committee that ironed out a compromise that averted the need for a special session to fortify the state's windstorm insurance fund. Eiland didn't stop there as he passed several other key pieces of hurricane-related legislation including a bill to strengthen the General Land Office's ability to take a lead role in beach cleanup when Ike-like storms pound the coast and another measure that gives the state Supreme Court the power to intervene in court proceedings that have been affected by bad weather in coastal areas. He used his expertise on the insurance panel to pass bills designed to beef up state oversight on life insurance sales and marketing and county mutual insurance companies. Eiland's cool and non-confrontational demeanor - coupled with his vast institutional knowledge, devotion to fairness and tendency to do the right thing regardless of partisan pressure or political consequences - have made him one of the most popular and well respected members of his colleagues at the Capitol. All of those qualities were on display in rare fashion when Eiland found himself with the unenviable job of proceeding over the local and consent calendar during a five-day stalling strategy that fellow Democrats used to kill a voter ID bill a week before the session came to an end. House members from both parties couldn't help but agree that Eiland gave new meaning to the word statesman during that strange and divisive episode in House history.

Kip Averitt doesn't seek out the spotlight or try to grab that many headlines, but few if any Texas lawmakers are more effective in a quietly graceful, devoted and pragmatic way than the moderate Waco Republican who served in the House for nine years before joining the upper chamber in 2002. Averitt has been as good for the environment as a legislator in a Republican controlled Senate can hope to be as the Natural Resources Committee chairman - and he hasn't been afraid to take on the party powers that be and big establishment interests as one of the best friends that ordinary Texas families, patients, consumers and regular folks in general have under the pink granite dome in Austin. Averitt's work on the issues that the committee he leads oversees was downright outstanding. When a major clean air bill died in the House crossfire on voter ID, Averitt broke it into pieces and attached them to other vehicles as a way to keep key provisions of the critical measure alive. Averitt championed new standards for building codes and energy efficiency, grants designed to bring the cleanest technology to the marketplace as quickly as possible, a greenhouse gas registry and a mechanism that aimed to strengthen communications between state regulatory agencies such as the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Railroad Commission and the Public Utility Commission. Averitt passed a multitude of bills to bolster the state's management of water resources - and he led the fight for incentives to ensure that new energy projects in Texas are among the nation's cleanest. As a Finance Committee member who advised the Senate's state budget conferees on natural resource needs in Article VI, Averitt had an instrumental role in securing funding for water and clean air initiatives in the new two-year spending plan. One of the Legislature's most successful bridge builders, Averitt negotiated a deal with financial industry interests on omnibus credit union legislation and he worked with doctors and insurance representatives on a bill designed to force big health insurance firms to live up to their promises. One of Averitt's biggest early achievements turned out to be one of his biggest disappointments when a Children's Health Insurance Program expansion measure that he sponsored died in the House logjam on voter ID. Averitt, who'd persuaded all but two of his Senate colleagues to back the CHIP bill on its first trip through the Senate, passed it again in the session's final week as an amendment to another bill that the House rejected because the two subjects were not closely related enough. He kept working on a way to push through the CHIP bill until time finally ran out on that effort. While the CHIP expansion didn't pass this time around, it gave the Senate a prime opportunity to make a statement about changing priorities in Texas today.

Throughout a six-year House career Dan Branch has faced the dual challenge of living up to enormous potential while overcoming a natural elitist stigma that comes with the territory of being the state representative for the affluent inner-city enclave of Highland Park. Branch succeeded on both of those fronts in a way that prompted one of his closest House allies to remark that they'd made a common man out of Branch during the regular session this year. While that might be true to a degree, there was nothing common about the praise that Branch generated from his colleagues in the House on both sides of the aisle during by far his best session yet as a state legislator. As the House Higher Education Committee chairman who happened to be Speaker Joe Straus' best friend in the Legislature, Branch scored a major victory when he worked diligently with a diverse group of House members to fashion a compromise on a top ten percent college admissions rule that lawmakers had been attempting without success to ease ever since its creation a dozen years back. The common man in Branch bubbled to the surface during his closing remarks on the top ten percent law when he noted that his hero, Sam Houston, thought the title he'd once held as teacher was more significant than all the others including congressman, governor and president. Branch artfully used the success on that legislation to pitch his push for a greater commitment to research endeavors in the state's higher education system and the emerging research university measure that he pushed through the House with success as the chief sponsor. Branch topped it all off by passing a bill to establish a University of North Texas at Dallas College of Law on the eve of the session's final day. Branch passed bills that will clarify state law regarding a resident physician program at the Baylor College of Medicine and streamline a grant program for low-income career school graduates - and one of his most notable achievements was a measure that will help public schools make the transition from traditional textbooks to computerized educational materials. Branch's only significant setback came when legislation that would have limited tuition increases at state universities fell victim to House logjam during the war on voter ID. But Branch bounced back with a resolution that he passed on the session's final day to essentially warn college officials to keep tuition hikes to a minimum or face music they won't like to hear the next time the Legislature meets. That isn't binding - but the message is clear and could have some impact. Heading into the interim, Branch will hope these accomplishments and others will provide good advertising for a re-election campaign as a Republican targeted by Democrats in a district that the GOP's John McCain barely won in 2008. That's if Branch doesn't run for attorney general or some other statewide post instead next year.

Pick a legislative superlative and most any will fit the West Texas attorney and former state Senate aide and state representative who's been a member of the upper chamber for the past 13 years and a perennial superstar at the Capitol for most of this decade. No leader on either side of the Capitol listens more attentively to every member's views and concerns and grants a more full and fair hearing on issues of all shapes and sizes as if every single one of them happened to be major in their own right. No leader commands more genuine respect and widespread admiration from colleagues in the Legislature than the chairman of the Senate State Affairs Committee. On most issues that are classified as major in the eyes of the lobby, the press and a majority of legislators you can expect to find Robert Duncan smack dab in the middle of them regardless of whether his name's listed first on legislation as the chief sponsor. He quite often does have the lead role as the main Senate sponsor of big time legislation such as a proposed constitutional amendment that will give voters a chance to put more limits on government's ability to gobble up private property through the process of eminent domain. Duncan served as the lead Senate author on one of the first major oil industry reforms in decades with a bill that creates a mechanism for cleaning up abandoned wells that have become expensive and dangerous disasters waiting to happen in the part of Texas he represents and other parts of the state. Duncan didn't have to be an official member of the state budget conference to still have enormous influence over many of the key decisions it made as one of the designated alternate negotiators. He was a driving force in the Capitol's east wing on public schools and higher education issues such as the top ten percent law, college tuition limitations and the successful push for greater funding for emerging research university initiatives at more than a dozen state institutions of higher learning including Texas Tech back in his hometown. Duncan was a key player on legislation dealing with pensions for retired teachers and state employees, transparency in health care costs, criminal justice concerns like post-conviction DNA testing and compensation for the wrongly convicted. As a legislator who'd been a tort reform backer, Duncan made a major statement by generating unprecedented bipartisan support in the Senate for a bill that trial lawyers had hoped to pass as a way to make it easier to win damages in mesothelioma lawsuits related to asbestos exposure. Duncan stepped out of the coals long enough to win praise from senators on both sides of the aisle for the fair-handed leadership and guidance he displayed while presiding over a Senate committee of the whole hearing on the controversial voter ID bill. Duncan may not be the proverbial life of the party as a guy who always seems so serious. But the quality of the work he does session after session is cause for celebration.

The House Democratic Caucus leader at times can be his own worst enemy - like when he used a point of order to kill a bill that would have been named after a police officer who died in the line of duty while her widower watched from above in the gallery. But when it came to overall effectiveness at what he set out to do, Dunnam turned in a stellar performance as he made the giant leap from partisan bomb thrower at the back mike to pivotal player on Republican Speaker Joe Straus' team while providing critical insight and leadership on what turned out to be one of the session's top two issues as the chairman of the Select Committee on Federal Economic Stabilization Funding. As the House's point person on the flow of federal stimulus funds to the state, Dunnam led the chamber on an unprecedented journey over a new frontier that was packed with potential landmines and obstacles with a steady hand that impressed his most ardent Republican critics even if some will never confess to that publicly. Dunnam played a major role in the 2008 elections that moved Democrats to within two seats of the House majority they'd lost six years ago - and he had a bigger impact on the speaker's election single handedly than any other state representative on either side of the aisle. Dunnam did a beautiful job of having it both ways - working better than ever with Republicans who'd been programmed to despise him in previous sessions before reverting to his aggressive partisan field general role when he led the charge that killed a voter ID bill that had been the GOP's number one priority at the Capitol since the session's first day. While Dunnam could have a devastating effect on proposals he didn't like for policy or partisan reasons, he was instrumental in helping forge behind-the-scenes deals and consensus on major issues in a role that he hadn't relished as much until now. When Dunnam wasn't at the center of debate on the most pressing and controversial issues, he was busy sponsoring legislation that didn't command the spotlight even though it did make some headlines like a bill that he passed to make it a criminal offense for lawyers to fail to report barratry that's known to the layman as ambulance chasing by other lawyers when they stumbled on to such information. Dunnam passed another bill out of the House with overwhelming support to designate a special flag for the Texas governor's office. Whether you love the guy or hate him, you can't deny the size of the splash he made in the Capitol's west wing this year.

Some veteran legislators tend to peak at some point during long careers at the Texas Capitol and eventually start to lose a bit of their effectiveness. But Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa - a South Texas lawyer who's in the midst of his 22nd year in the Legislature - just keeps getting better. You can't help but get the impression that Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst would wholeheartedly agree with that thought based on the fact that he'd named Hinojosa to more key conference committees that hammered out compromise deals with the House than any other member of the upper chamber heading into the final weekend of the regular session. Hinojosa was a major player on the state budget as the Senate Finance Committee vice-chairman for the first time and a member of the conference committee that negotiated a final state spending plan for the next two years. Hinojosa ended up as a conferee on the Texas Department of Transportation sunset bill even though he hadn't appeared to be a key player on that particular issue until Dewhurst tapped him for negotiator job. That's probably because he's simply the kind of guy you want on your side in a fight - and he has a way about him that helps get the peace process moving in the search for solutions as a problem-solving legislator who's a quick study while commanding respect and trust from peers on both sides of the partisan aisle. Hinojosa was a pivotal force behind the scenes on a host of key issues - and he had a major role in legislation that restructured parts of the state bureaucracy as a Sunset Advisory Commission appointee and point person in the Senate on bills that reformed and gave new leases on life to the Texas Youth Commission, the Department of Public Safety and the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission. Before the session opened for business Hinojosa was already working hard on building a consensus for college tuition limits - one of the session's hottest issues - and he served as the Democrats' point person on the Senate floor in the debate on the reform of state insurance laws and the state agency that regulates the insurance industry. Hinojosa emerged as the Senate sponsor on legislation that changed the way smokeless tobacco is taxed in a creative legislative play that will boost funding for a physician education loan repayment program and help foot the bill for a tax cut for small businesses across the state. Hinojosa found time to tend to the needs of his district as well with funding that he secured and legislation that he passed that will benefit the Port of Corpus Christi, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, highway projects and parks and recreation programs in his part of the state.

The former San Antonio City Council member who's serving her seventh House term was a key player when Tom Craddick led the lower chamber as one of the Democrats who supported him then. With fellow San Antonio resident Joe Straus at the helm of the House, a true star was born in the specific case of Ruth McClendon. As a member of the Appropriations Committee and the team of House conferees who negotiated a final state budget with their Senate counterparts, McClendon had a significant impact on the new two-year spending plan and overcame stiff opposition from highway contractors when she secured $182 million for rail relocation that will lay the groundwork for a more advanced passenger train service in Texas. As a House Transportation Committee member, McClendon had an eye on the Texas highway system as well as the sponsor of a bill that she passed to limit the Texas Department of Transportation's ability to spend money on advertising and marketing to promote toll roads and influence public opinion on them. As the vice-chair of the Appropriations subcommittee on criminal justice and a member of the Criminal Justice Oversight Committee, McClendon was in position to lead the charge in the House for a landmark innocence commission that the Legislature approved as a way to investigate wrongful convictions and the flaws in the system that led to them. McClendon used her influence in the legislative crime-fighting arena to also pass a bill that will strengthen the state's ability to prosecute abuse and other offenses in Texas Youth Commission facilities and another measure that creates a misdemeanor criminal offense for driver's license theft. As a former juvenile probation office director who's the only House Democrat on the Sunset Advisory Commission, McClendon probably found it fitting that she was tapped for the job as the sponsor in the lower chamber for legislation designed to keep the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission and TYC from going out of business in the Legislature's periodic review of them. McClendon also used her expertise and influence on transportation and state agency operations as the sponsor of a bill to create a Department of Motor Vehicles to oversee car and truck registration and regulation. Considering how busy and highly effective she was on the aforementioned endeavors, it might seem amazing that she still found time to run the House Rules & Resolutions Committee as its chair. But McClendon proved to be one of the Legislature's top multi-taskers during a session that could arguably be described as phenomenal without fear of inflating the value of the contributions she made.

After two years in exile after unsuccessfully challenging Tom Craddick in the 2007 speaker's election, Jim Pitts turned in a performance as the House Appropriations Committee chairman that was worthy of even more superlatives than the outstanding job he did in that same position when he was a fresh face at the helm four years ago. Pitts drew accolades from both sides of the partisan divide for the way he approached his job as the House's lead budget writer with the mindset of a pyramid construction crew, building the new two-year state spending plan from the ground up as opposed to the top-down approach he'd been ordered to under take during his 2005 debut in the most powerful job in the Legislature's lower chamber next to the speaker itself. A state representative for the past 16 years, Pitts had learned from experience as an appropriations panel leader and member and a guy who had relatively crummy committee assignments two years ago after taking on Craddick that a budget can be a more valuable document and much easier to pass if everyone who has to vote on it feels like a true stakeholder who'd had an opportunity to help shape it in a large or small but significant way. Speaker Joe Straus, who Pitts played a key part in helping elect to the chamber's top leadership post, afforded the budget chairman the freedom and flexibility to run the committee the way he saw fit without excessive interference from the top outside. And Pitts treated the members of his committee in similar fashion without delegating away too much of the authority he needed to be effective or deferring or waffling on the toughest decisions that only the leader of the pack could make. When the budget hit the floor some conservatives like Pitts' predecessor complained that his kind and gentle attitude had created and fostered a situation where House members were spending money like drunken sailors on weekend leave. But when it came time to vote, every single member of both parties from both extremes on the political spectrum and all points in between joined the party and voted for the Pitts budget on its first swing through that side of the building. It was the first time that a budget had been approved by a unanimous vote in the House in eight years. One of Pitts' most prized accomplishments was his ability to secure a major boost in funding for college scholarships along with other items that he had championed as the House's lead budget conferee. But even as Pitts was building solidarity among House colleagues, he showed substantial toughness and no fear of confrontation when he took on Governor Rick Perry head-on by persuading the committee to weaken his control over the enterprise and technology incentive funds that he'd been using to close the deals in the attempt to bring new business and industry expansion to the state. That's something very few Republicans are going to have the bold will to do.

The good news for the former Plano mayor and 16-year Senate veteran is that she had a session full of accomplishments that were major enough to draw comparisons to the starring role she'd played in the landmark school finance battles earlier this decade. The bad news for Florence Shapiro is that she was too busy working so hard and doing a good job at the Capitol to spend any significant time on her campaign for the United States Senate. In a potential foreshadowing of the upcoming U.S. Senate battle, Shapiro as the Senate Education Committee chair might not have been all that pleased about Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst's decision to shift some of authority she'd enjoyed to a new panel he created to oversee higher education in Texas. Dewhurst after all could be on the verge of entering a U.S. Senate race that Shapiro has been seriously exploring for almost a year. But Shapiro remained a major player on higher ed as evidenced by her lead role on legislation that will bring about the first major changes to the state's top ten percent rule for college admissions since its inception 12 years ago. When Shapiro held her nose literally as the Senate agreed to a softer version of the legislation that the House had approved when it limited changes to the University of Texas at Austin, the gesture was a tension-defusing sign of how high she's always set her standards in the lawmaking arena. Watered-down or not, that was a major achievement. Shapiro scored a significant victory on the public school front as the Senate sponsor of an accountability bill that will shift the emphasis from standardized testing to overall progress, academic growth and postsecondary and workforce readiness in the state's education system. Shapiro added another milestone mark to an impressive list of success stories in 2009 as the Senate sponsor of legislation that will help bring Texas schools into the current century by allowing them to rely more on high technology in the learning process than traditional textbooks. Shapiro also pushed through a measure that aims to keep more kids in class and off the streets by strengthening the state's ability to reduce truancy - and she passed another bill to help streamline the state's prepaid college tuition program. But Shapiro didn't limit her focus to the schoolhouse and college campus as she shepherded through the process an array of measures on a wide range of issues including bills that will make it easier for law enforcement authorities to track convicted sex offenders, boost safety standards for the transportation of kids by child care providers and ease state restrictions on dental assistants so they can do more to help dentists and their patients. A key question now centers on whether Shapiro will run for re-election if she doesn't follow through on the U.S. Senate race. Can you imagine what the upper chamber would be like without her there every day?

She may not have her name on the sponsor's line on marquee legislation - and the Local & Consent Calendars Committee that she chairs isn't generally considered to be as high-powered and glamorous as some standing panels like Appropriations, State Affairs and non-local Calendars by the standards that the press and other observers outside the brass rail use to measure influence in the Legislature's lower chamber. But Local & Consent may be more important than all of the other three dozen panels in the Capitol's west wing in the eyes of many House members whose re-election campaigns depend critically on their local legislation agenda - and Thompson won accolades from colleagues on both sides of the aisle for the model job she did running the panel with intelligence, dignity and absolute grace. As the leader of a committee that has the potential to be used as a vendetta machine, Thompson above all else treated Republicans and fellow Democrats as fairly as they could expect to be by someone in that role. But Thompson, a member of the House since 1973, was far more than an effective committee chair in her 18th term in the lower chamber. She's evolved into the conscience of the lower chamber - a guiding light who's intangible impact on the regular session has been gigantic in an immeasurable but indisputable way. Thompson, one of Speaker Joe Straus' top Democratic allies from the day he locked up the race for the House's top leadership post in January, is the chamber's top mother figure - and the last thing that any members who are in their right mind want to do is get on her bad side. When Thompson speaks, everyone else shuts up and listens, partly out of fear but more out of reverence. Thompson has arguably done more than any other member to make it possible for Straus to keep peace in the House and to keep the chamber moving in a positive direction when it's threatened to go off the track or simply break down. Once viewed as loud and overly partisan with a tendency to go ballistic at times and preach too much at others, Thompson has matured into one of the Legislature's top leaders and earned every bit of the respect she commands from Republicans and Democrats alike.

When you've been widely recognized for more than a decade as one of the state's best legislators - and you already have a reputation for working far longer hours than anyone at the Capitol - what do you do to get better? For starters, you start coming to work even earlier and staying even later each day during a regular session if you happen to be Judy Zaffirini. The Senate's second-longest serving member who's in the midst of her 22nd year in the upper chamber had a session that could be described as typically outstanding and what's come to be expected in light of the high bar she sets for herself and always keeps raising. The session got under way when Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst named Zaffirini to chair a new Senate Higher Education Committee that he created to deal with the issue that she considers to be her number one passion in the job she cherishes and performs so consistently well. Zaffirini as a result was more instrumental than ever on issues dealing with the state's institutions of higher learning during a session in which they turned out to be higher profile priorities than they generally had in recent years past. Zaffirini was a driving force in the push to create a prize-winning environment for research at top-tier universities - and she emerged as the chief sponsor of legislation that would have placed restrictions on the ability of regents on public university governing boards to raise tuition at the schools they oversee had it not got caught up in a firestorm on voter ID in the House. As part of her crusade to make college more affordable for as many potential students as possible, Zaffirini sponsored several other bills that were designed to facilitate that cause including one measure that she passed that will make it easier for young Texans who've been in state residential care facilities and foster homes to qualify for tuition and fee exemptions. Zaffirini passed yet another bill that will streamline the process for approving construction and renovation projects at state colleges and universities in Texas. But Zaffirini's contributions weren't limited to the higher education arena in 2009. Zaffirini continued her quest to make life better for the downtrodden and disabled with legislation such as a pair of bills that she passed to improve state services for children and adults who are deaf and blind. As an alternative advisor to a state spending conference committee on which she'd been a member in recent past sessions, Zaffirini played a bigger role behind the scenes in the budget process on higher education and human service issues than most of the other official negotiators. One of her biggest accomplishments in that respect came when she led the fight to secure $500 million for community care so more Texans who are disabled can have a chance to live at home instead of institutions. She seemed to be just as proud of her efforts as the sponsor of bills that expanded the state's pre-kindergarten program, established food banks to alleviate hunger in poor areas and forced insurance companies to cover the participation of patients in clinical trial treatment endeavors. And that's just a small sample.

Best of the Legislature 2009