Key Points:

• Arizona lawmakers’ effectiveness is tied to party affiliation, with Republicans dominating bill passage

• The Center for Effective Lawmaking report shows a 20:1 ratio of Republican to Democrat bills passed in Arizona

• Report finds that lawmakers with a narrow policy focus and moderate approach tend to be more effective

What’s it take to be an effective Arizona lawmaker?

To start, have tenure, hold a key position and carve out an area of expertise. Most importantly, however, is to belong to the state’s majority party. And in Arizona, that means the GOP.

A lawmaker’s party registration plays an outsize role in getting bills passed into law, says a report from The Center for Effective Lawmaking. That’s not a surprise, given majority rules in legislative work.

But the center’s report puts Arizona in a class of its own, nationally. Arizona’s Democrats have been nearly shut out of getting their legislation passed into law — much more so than other states where the minority party ends up with little to brag about.

In the 2023 and 2024 sessions in Arizona,  Republicans saw 442 of their bills signed into law, compared to 20 for Democrats – even with a Democrat in the governor’s seat.

“This approximately 20:1 ratio is significantly out of proportion to the number of seats the parties hold in the chambers, which have been nearly equal, and well beyond what is seen in most legislatures across the country,” the report stated. In the 2023-24 session, Republicans held 48 seats compared to 42 for Democrats.

The lopsided results reflect the strong partisanship that presides at the Arizona Capitol, the report noted.

The center, a collaboration of Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia, analyzes the track record of lawmakers in all the states, awarding points to those who successfully guide their bills through the labyrinthine process of reaching the governor’s desk and getting signed into law.

Heavier weight is given to bills deemed “substantial” or “significant,” which means sponsoring lots of specialty license plate bills won’t get you a high score. The evaluation results in a “legislative effectiveness score” that is published after every two-year session.

Alan Wiseman, one of the study’s authors, said while each state has its own idiosyncrasies, there are some shared traits.

A key common denominator is experience. While there are lots of arguments for term limits (which exist in 16 states, including in modified form in Arizona), Wiseman said the data show the longer a person is in office, the more effective they are.

The center’s research also showed that developing expertise in a subject can pay off. Lawmakers who focus their policy agendas on one issue tend to be notably more successful, Wiseman said. 

“They’ve cultivated some background information on that (issue) and probably have organized their staff around that,” he said.

And surprisingly, lawmakers who are seen as “moderate” — which Wiseman cautions is a relative term — fare better. They have track records of working across party lines.

“Even when you’re in the majority party, you tend to do better when you recruit minority members as co-sponsors,” he said.

Red and blue states aren’t very different when it comes to gauging effectiveness. It comes down to the numbers and the simple fact that the majority rules, regardless who is in charge, Wiseman said.

This is not to say that the most effective lawmakers author the most beneficial legislation. The study focuses on the people and the methods that get a policy signed into law — not whether the legislation is deemed “good” or “bad”.   

Arizona’s most effective lawmakers, as ranked by the study, echo many of its findings.

Rep. David Livingston, R-Surprise, and Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, had the highest scores in the 2023-24 review. Each has been in the Legislature for more than a decade (14 for Livingston and 20 for Kavanagh), each chaired the key appropriations committee in their respective chambers and each had certain areas of emphasis.

Leading the appropriations committees gives them a leg up: The budget bills carry the name of the chair, which adds up to an automatic 16 bills when successfully passed.

Kavanagh added another factor that he said leads to success: a narrow focus.

“The leading cause of bill death is overreach,” he said. Go too far, too fast, and a bill can quickly die. But a more patient, step-by-step approach can revive a bill.

He points to the state’s universal school voucher program as the “poster child” for incremental legislation.

It started in 2011 as a program for children with disabilities. In the following years, other categories of eligible children were added, culminating in the expansion to all Arizona students in 2022.

“The critics claimed it was a slippery slope,” Kavanagh said of the original legislation. “And they were right!”

Lawmakers’ bills face a “treacherous path” to get to the governor’s desk, he said. Legislation has to clear 21 potential hurdles to get to the finish line, a process he outlines in his book, “State Legislatures, An Owner’s Manual.”

That’s where experience helps — and not just in knowing how to navigate the technical aspects of the process, he said.

“Tenured lawmakers tend to have more friends,” Kavanagh said, underscoring the importance of personal relationships in lawmaking.

Livingston said bipartisan support is key, especially in the current era of divided government, with a Democratic governor and a Republican-controlled Legislature.

A bill’s content, of course, also matters.

“I don’t run too many hot topic issues,” he said, although his sponsorship of pro-Israel bills have drawn heated debate. Livingston said he tends to focus on his “niche” of pension and insurance policy issues, keeping the scope limited so they can be easily understood and win votes.

Claiming a niche explains the success of other lawmakers ranked by the Center for Effective Lawmaking.

A prime example is Rep. Gail Griffin, R-Hereford, a legislative veteran who dominates on water policy.

The center ranked Griffin second after Livingston in effectiveness in the House. It also recognized her as the Arizona lawmaker who most exceeded expectations by getting substantial wins in six consecutive legislative years.

“The reason the whole state is not an Active Management Area — that’s because of Gail,” lobbyist Kevin DeMenna said, referring to restrictions on how much groundwater a given area can pump. “She is the queen of water.”

Griffin chairs the House committee that deals with water legislation, and plays a vital gatekeeper role on which bills get a hearing and which get sidelined.

There’s another power of chairmanship: An agreement with their counterpart in the opposite chamber to advance each others’ bills, said Mike Haener, a lobbyist who has spent years at the Capitol.

“You want the same courtesy of your bills being heard,” he explained. Such a relationship can boost the chances of a chair’s bills getting to the finish line.

Although most of the highest-scoring lawmakers are committee chairs, there are exceptions.

Rep. Selina Bliss ranked as the third most effective House lawmaker in her freshman term, which links to her background as a nurse as well as a voice for rural Arizona. She is a Republican from Prescott.

The report ranked the Democrats separately from the Republicans, given the partisan disparity in getting a bill heard. The top three in the House were all three-term veterans, which speaks to the value of tenure.

One of those lawmakers, former Rep. Jennifer Longdon of Phoenix, said there’s more to being effective than getting a bill signed into law — regardless of the study’s focus.

“Being a minority member, that may not be the strongest and most effective measure,” she said. “I think learning how to move effectively behind the scenes is just as important.”

Lawmakers’ overall performance can also be gauged by how much time they spend meeting with constituents, helping them navigate government and explaining what is happening at the Capitol, she said.

Plus, there is no metric for measuring how much a minority party member might have influenced legislation. There are lawmakers “whose names are lost to history” who helped shape important policy, even if their name is not on the bill, Longdon said.

“There are a whole bunch of bills that have my stuff in the middle of them,” she said. “Sometimes you have to make a decision, ‘Do I want my name on it, or do I want the bill done?”’

Working with a member of the majority is often the best way for a minority party member to get some legislative success — even if they don’t get credit for it.

To read the center’s full report, go to https://thelawmakers.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Highlights-from-the-56th-Arizona-Legislature-State-Legislative-Effectiveness-Scores.pdf’

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CHART INFORMATION

The Center for Effective Lawmaking ranked the top 10 most effective lawmakers in the 2023-24 session. They are ranked by chamber and party.

House Republicans:

1 — David Livingston, Peoria

2 — Gail Griffin, Hereford

3 — Selina Bliss, Prescott

4 — David Cook, Globe

5 — Matt Gress, Phoenix

6 — Kevin Payne, Peoria

7 — Tim Dunn, Yuma

8 — Leo Biasiucci, Lake Havasu City

9 — Steve Montenegro, Goodyear

10 — Justin Wilmeth, Phoenix.

House Democrats:

1 — Amish Shah, Phoenix

2 — Alma Hernandez, Tucson

3 — Jennifer Longdon, Phoenix

4 — Consuelo Hernandez, Tucson

5 — Laura Terech, Phoenix

6 — Stacey Travers, Phoenix

7 — Stephanie Stahl-Hamilton, Tucson

8 — Analise Ortiz, Phoenix

9 — Jennifer Pawlick, Chandler

10 — Andres Cano, Tucson

Senate Republicans

1 — John Kavanagh, Fountain Hills

2 — T.J. Shope, Coolidge

3 — David Gowan, Sierra Vista

4 — Janae Shamp, Surprise

5 — J.D. Mesnard, Chandler

6 — Justine Wadsack, Tucson

7 — Ken Bennett, Prescott

8 — Anthony Kern, Glendale

9 — Frank Carroll, Sun City West

10 — Jake Hoffman, Queen Creek

Senate Democrats

1 — Juan Mendez, Tempe

2 — Sally Ann Gonzales, Tucson

3 — Catherine Miranda, Laveen

4 — Theresa Hatathlie, Coalmine

5 — Lela Alston, Phoenix