As in the Senate, Republicans hold a sizeable advantage in the House, a fact that played out when it came to moving bills through the system.

Rep. Ted Carpenter’s success with his legislation — eight of his 10 bills got the governor’s signature, an 80 per cent total — was narrowly defeated by Sen. Barbara Leff’s 81 per cent

The totals in this story exclude memorials, resolutions and placeholder bills that were not used to carry strike-everything amendments.

Almost all of Mr. Carpenter’s bills were primarily assigned to the House Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee, of which the District 6 Republican is chairman.

Rep. Tom Boone, R-4, topped the House for number of vetoes with four, most notably H2030, which would have expanded the denial of services to illegal aliens, and H2718, a bill that would have reworked the way the state funds students learning English.

Rep. Russell Pearce, R-18, sponsored the most bills in the House, clocking in with 51. However, only seven of them made it to the governor’s desk: six were signed into law, while the seventh, H2404, a measure to transfer the operation of the Capitol Police to the Department of Public Safety from the Department of Administration, was vetoed.

Bills Signed

Other representatives who had at least half of the bills they sponsored signed were:

Judy Burges, R-4 — 1 of 1 for 100 per cent (Because she only sponsored one bill, Mr. Carpenter was deemed to have the highest percentage of bills signed.)

Laura Knaperek, R-17 — 3 of 5 for 60 per cent

John McComish, R-20 — 3 of 5 for 60 per cent

John Nelson, R-12 — 15 of 29 for 52 per cent

Bob Stump, R-9 — 2 of 4 for 50 per cent

Rep. Robert Meza, D-14, was the only representative to not sponsor any bills.

Of the 682 bills submitted in the House, Democrats sponsored 159. Eight Democratic bills went to the governor, seven were signed and one received a veto.

Democrats Had Few Hearings

With Republicans in control of the committees, Democrats had a difficult time getting their bills heard. Only 33 of the 159 Democrat-sponsored bills received a hearing. Reps. Meg Burton Cahill, D-17, Martha Garcia, D-13, and Debbie McCune-Davis, D-14, all fared the worst, not able to land a hearing for any of their bills.

“I don’t think our bills are not given a hearing because of their substance,” House Minority Leader Phil Lopes, D-27, said. “I think our bills, generally speaking, are not given a hearing because they’re Democrat bills. That’s my speculation.”

Democrats Vote No, But So Do Some Republicans

Just as the Republican committee chairs took stands against Democrat issues, House Democrats took their stands, as well, during floor votes. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-15, led the charge with 220 presses of the “no” button during roll call votes. All said, Democrats cast 3,916 no votes — about 60 per cent of all of the no votes cast in the House. District 23 Democrat Cheryl Chase’s 79 no votes were the least of any House Democrat.

In all, there were 30,259 yes votes and 6,750 no votes cast in the House.

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-22, who cast 187 no votes, led Republican nay-sayers. He voted against more issues than all but 12 Democrats.

After reading the bills, Mr. Biggs says he determines whether the bills “advance the notion of liberty or impede the cause of freedom. I think that’s what Republicans stand for.”

Rep. Eddie Farnsworth, R-22, was only a dozen votes behind Mr. Biggs, with a total of 175 no votes. Mr. Pearce and Rep. Pamela Gorman, R-6, logged 147 and 145 no votes, respectively.

Democrats averaged 178 no votes per member; Republicans averaged slightly fewer than 70 per member.

Mr. Boone had the fewest number of no votes, 17, followed by Mr. McComish, who had 22.

Attendance

Only five representatives were present for every roll call vote: Manny Alvarez, D-25; Ms. Burges; Mr. Pearce; Tom Prezelski, D-29; and Steve Yarbrough, R-21.

Rep. David Burnell Smith, R-7, was absent for 141 roll call votes, the most in the House, followed by Rep. Steve Huffman, R-26, who missed 126. —