Oregon Lawmakers Who Endure the Long Hours and Disgraceful Pay Tend to Improve Their Performance

This year, an inexperienced class of lawmakers struggled on the job.

Sen. Mark Meek. (Blake Benard)
By Brianna Wheeler

Since 1977, WW has biennially evaluated Portland-area state lawmakers in a big cover package that, unlike the majority of the paper’s reporting, relies on the anonymous gossip and opinions of Senate and House staffers, Capitol lobbyists, and observers in the know. This year’s analysis—as our cover package’s author and today’s guest Nigel Jaquiss puts it—can be summarized in one word. Yecch.

In this week’s cover package, 41 area lawmakers are given one of five grades: excellent, good, average, bad, or awful. And while the majority of those surveyed shook out as average, very few were deemed excellent, and there were even a couple of awfuls. Nigel will break down his integrity, brains and effectiveness rubric.

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