Guess the list

Think you know who will make the Texas Monthly Ten Best and Ten Worst list for the 80th Lege? Take a guess and win a prize.

Patricia Kilday Hart and I are now working on the Ten Best and Ten Worst story for the 80th Legislature. We are offering a one-year subscription to TEXAS MONTHLY for the correspondent who can come closest to predicting our choices. Anyone caught hacking into the magazine's web site, as a certain press secretary did in 2003 (NOT a joke), will be disqualified. Anyone who says that our list is stupid because there can't be Ten Best from this session will be disqualified. The deadline for submissions is Wednesday, June 13, at 11 p.m. The list will be made public on the morning of Thursday, June 14. Submit your entries by e-mail to pburka@texasmonthly.com and include a telephone number so that we can notify you if you win.

Remember that Burka and Hart value effectiveness most of all. Legislators who get things done get rated highly; legislators who fumble the ball get pinged. It's entirely possible to go from one list to the other - in fact, I would not be surpised if Robert Talton is a Ten Best recipient this year for his incredibly efficient point-of-order sniping. Ideology is only a factor if it gets in the way of accomplishment, especially if it presents a roadblock to a legislator's own goals.

I'm going to think about this and try to post my own guesses next week. Feel free to leave your own list in the comments.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on June 02, 2007 to That's our Lege