The Best and Worst Legislators, 1973-2019

Texas Monthly has been covering the scoundrels, saints, hucksters, and statesmen of the Texas Legislature since our founding in 1973. And as our 2019 Best and Worst Legislators list demonstrates, the Lege continues to be the best entertainment Texas has to offer. But it’s also a serious business that deserves the gimlet eye of independent journalists. These lists aim to capture what’s wonderful and terrible, hilarious and stupefying about the 181 Texans who meet in the Capitol every odd year to do the people’s business. Here you’ll find all 24 Best and Worst lists as well as some of our favorites from the last 46 years.

Our Favorite Bests, 1973-2019

Jun 18, 2019 — By Texas Monthly

Passing legislation may be fun. But this compilation shows that writing about passing legislation can be even more fun.

Our Favorite Worsts, 1973-2019

Jun 18, 2019 — By Texas Monthly

Passing legislation may be fun. But this compilation shows that writing about passing legislation can be even more fun.

2019: The Best and Worst Legislators

Jun 18, 2019 — By Carlos Sanchez, R.G. Ratcliffe and Christopher Hooks

They called it the kumbaya session, but we still found plenty of scoundrels and statesmen.

2017: The Best and Worst Legislators

Jun 20, 2017 — By R.G. Ratcliffe

It just wouldn’t be an odd-numbered year without a crazy legislative session—and our picks of the ten lawmakers who made us proud and the ten who made us pull our hair out.

2015: The Best and Worst Legislators

Jun 22, 2015 — By Texas Monthly, Erica Grieder, Dave Mann, R.G. Ratcliffe and Brian D. Sweany

New guv, new lite guv, new attorney general, new committee chairs: the Eighty-fourth Legislature had a lot to prove. So how well did its members do?

The Best and Worst Legislators 2013

Jun 12, 2013 — By Sonia Smith and Paul Burka

The legislators that shaped the Eighty-third Legislative session, for good and bad.

2011: The Best and Worst Legislators

Jan 21, 2013 — By Paul Burka and Nate Blakeslee

For the Eighty-second Legislature (our twentieth at the Capitol), everything old was new again: the state faced a budget deficit; the governor harbored presidential ambitions; the members of the Best list were hard to find; and the names on the Worst list picked themselves.

2009: The Best and Worst Legislators

Jun 30, 2009 — By Paul Burka and Patricia Hart

It was a new era at the Capitol, with a new Speaker and a new mood of peace, love, and bipartisanship in the war-torn House. But the eighty-first legislative session turned out to be a lot like the eighty that came before it—some heroes, some villains, and enough hot air to last until 2011.

2007: The Best and Worst Legislators

Jun 30, 2007 — By Paul Burka and Patricia Hart

The eightieth session began with a Speaker’s race, ended with a Speaker’s race, and was consumed in between by the usual mix of nuanced issues and nasty politics. Along the way, a handful of lawmakers put the common good ahead of all else. And a handful of lawmakers didn’t.

2005: The Best and Worst Legislators

Jun 30, 2005 — By Paul Burka and Patricia Hart

A few lawmakers in both parties distinguished themselves during one of the worst sessions anyone can remember. As for the rest? Well, in the words of Jon Stewart, that famous observer of Texas politics: not so much.

2003: The Best and the Worst Legislators

Jun 30, 2003 — By Texas Monthly

It was a session like no other: different rules, new power players, a surprise trip to Oklahoma, and the small matter of a $9.9 billion budget shortfall. All of which made it tricky to separate the heroes from the zeroes. But we did.

2001: The Best and the Worst Legislators

Jun 30, 2001 — By Paul Burka and Patricia Hart

Rodney Ellis was excellent. Gary Elkins was well, significantly less so. Bill Ratliff was a model of dignified leadership. Domingo Garcia was a one-man leper colony. Our biennial roundup of the Legislature's leading lights and dim bulbs.

“In short, the legislature was a lot like us, like Texas. It was amazingly diverse and boringly predictable; grand and generous and mean and small.”

1973: The Ten Best (And, Sigh, The Ten Worst) Legislators

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1999: The Best and the Worst Legislators

Jun 30, 1999 — By Paul Burka and Patricia Hart

Naughty Nixon and wonderful Wolens, soapy Shapiro and revered Ratliff, and of course, a certain governor who’s ready for his close-up: Our say-so on the session’s standouts—good, bad, and in-between. Read Story