The ballots have been counted, and the winner of the award for Best Republican Legislator, 113th Tennessee General Assembly, is Rep. Iris Rudder of Winchester.
Never heard of her? Neither had I. But a low profile is part of her winning formula. That, and the fact that she doesn’t seem to offer much in the way of legislation.
And as for counting ballots, there was actually only one: mine. The award is based on data from LegisScan, a tracking service for all 50 states, as reported by Adam Friedman of Tennessee Lookout. Rudder is credited with sponsoring fewer bills than any other legislator of either party – nine – and passing only one.
Her 11.11% success rate, while admirably anemic, is not the lowest for Republicans. Three others finished behind her, statistically. But they all introduced more legislation and passed twice as much: two bills each. My ideal Republican legislator, of course, would pass none.
Which is why, based on this scoring system, the two worst Republican legislators are Sen. Jack Johnson of Franklin with 107 bills passed, and Rep. William Lamberth of Portland with 105. Johnson and Lamberth are the Senate and House Republican leaders, and so their efforts enjoy considerable support from the faithful in the Red caucus. Around three-quarters of the bills they introduced became law.
For perspective: On the whole, only about a third of the 3,000 or so bills introduced passed.
Which brings me to the award for Best Democratic Legislator, 113th Tennessee General Assembly: Sen. Raumesh Akbari. Akbari passed 21 bills, though it took her 196 introductions – the most by any legislator – to reach that, a 10.71% success rate. (Rep. Bob Freeman had the highest success rate for Democrats, 29.55%, on 13 bills passed of 44 introduced.)
You might have noted how my use of data for the two parties differs. Here is the explanation, in the broadest sense: Republican bills passed = bad; Democratic bills passed = good. Rare exceptions to either formula may exist.
I should also note that four Democrats did not pass a single bill: Reps. Justin Jones, Justin Pearson, Gloria Johnson and Vincent Dixie. Combined, they went 0-for-121.
What might explain such remarkable futility? Let’s see: Republicans tried to kick three of those people out of the House last year and succeeded with two. The other is running for the U.S. Senate against the Republican incumbent, Marsha Blackburn. And the fourth shares certain characteristics with the two who were expelled, if you get my drift.
Another factor contributing to low passage rates by Democrats was mentioned in a tweet by state Sen. Heidi Campbell. The Tennessee Lookout report “assumes the goal is just to pass leg,” she wrote, using tweet shorthand. “There are MANY issues to consider. I’ve run gun bills every year e.g., that I know won’t pass bc people need to know.”
In other words, Democrats know full well that much – almost all – of what they introduce will not fare well with the Republican supermajorities in both houses of the Assembly. But they introduce it anyway, on principle.
Campbell, by the way, sponsored 123 bills, of which 12 passed, for a success rate of 9.76%.
Getting back to Rudder, her one successful bill – allowing utility commissioners in Franklin and Marion counties to serve more than two consecutive terms – was so unremarkable that it passed the House and the Senate unanimously. So, strictly speaking, you couldn’t classify it as a typical Republican effort, like banning books or flags or masks or vaccine requirements or …
So I took a look at her other eight bills that failed, and guess what? None of them appear to feature the usual Republican trademarks of comforting the comfortable and afflicting the afflicted. One would have allowed abortions in cases of rape or incest. Another would have legalized medical marijuana.
Might she be – dare I say it? – a reasonable Republican? I pretty much thought they were extinct in Tennessee.
Joe Rogers is a former writer for The Tennessean and editor for The New York Times. He is retired and living in Nashville.