Governing magazine’s Louis Jacobson pays special attention to state legislatures across the country, and he’s out this month with a review of a dozen legislators to watch – six from each party – just in time for the New Year.

Some of the Democratic names may be familiar to you because of the leadership they’ve already shown in 2011 and in recent years:

• Stacey Abrams - Georgia House (D)
  House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, who is the first woman to lead either party in the Georgia General Assembly, earned degrees from Spelman College, Yale Law School and the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. She’s a tax attorney and a former deputy city attorney for Atlanta. Despite being in the minority in the Legislature, observers credit her with winning concessions from freshman Republican Gov. Nathan Deal on a revamp of the HOPE scholarship program, a merit-based higher education fund for Georgia residents, and for putting up a strong fight against a GOP tax plan….
  

• Reuven Carlyle - Washington House (D)
  …After a career in the cellphone and software industries, Carlyle won an open seat in 2008 representing a trendy area of Seattle. He has made a point of crossing party lines and taking on figures in his own party. “I believe the people of our district elected me in 2008 to vigorously seek intellectual and moral independence from old-fashioned orthodoxies,” he wrote on his campaign website. “We live in a 21st-century global community and stereotypical positions -- liberal, conservative, Democrat and Republican -- have little bearing on our children’s future…”
  

• Wendy Davis - Texas Senate (D)
  …Sen. Wendy Davis, who represents Fort Worth, used the limited tools available to her to achieve spectacular results. Hours before last year’s session was to end, Davis filibustered a bill that included $4 billion in school cuts. That forced Republican Gov. Rick Perry -- who was on his way to becoming a presidential candidate -- to call a special session. It also turned Davis into “an icon among Democratic activists in Texas,” says Mark P. Jones, a Rice University political scientist….
  

• Ted Lieu - California Senate (D)
  ...Before election to the Senate in 2011, Lieu chaired the Assembly’s Rules, and Banking and Finance committees, where he was a key mover of legislation on such topics as foreclosure prevention, child sex offenders, domestic violence, cyberbullying, sewage spills and health insurance.
  “Ted Lieu is that rare Democratic political figure who combines it all,” says California-based Democratic strategist Garry South. “He’s smart and well educated, articulate, pleasant and professional to deal with, center-left while also being a former JAG and current reserve officer in the Air Force, has a photogenic young family, and is part of the fastest-growing ethnic group in the largest state....
  

• Vincent Sheheen - South Carolina Senate (D)
  Sen. Vincent Sheheen exceeded all expectations in his 2010 race for governor. Running in a strongly Republican state in a strongly Republican year, he lost to Nikki Haley -- who attracted considerable national media attention -- by just four percentage points. An effective legislator, he had sponsored 18 bills that became state law prior to his gubernatorial campaign….
  

• Darrin Williams - Arkansas House (D)
  Rep. Darrin Williams was adopted and raised in Little Rock. He’s a second-termer in a state with a three-term limit for state representatives, so he’s positioned to become a strong contender for speaker -- which would make him the first African-American to hold the position. He has already chaired the House Judiciary Committee, where he won a measure of bipartisan support for legislation….
  

Please read the full column for longer profiles of each legislator. We expect big things from all six of them, in addition to the many accomplishments they've already racked up.

DLCC Vice-Chair Steven Horsford, who also serves as Nevada’s state Senate Majority Leader, has been named to the 2011 edition of The Root 100, “a list of the most influential African Americans between the ages of 25 and 45.” The list is compiled each year by The Root, a publication founded by Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Senator Horsford, the first African American ever to serve as Nevada Senate Majority leader, shares this year’s stage with other Democratic rising stars like U.S. Rep André Carson and Newark mayor Cory Booker, as well as a host of other prominent voices in news media, art, and entertainment. But editors were clearly impressed with Senator Horsford’s leadership this session:

Democratic state Sen. Steven Horsford. Need we say more? Nevada's cutting-edge Senate majority leader has been making a name for himself since his election in 2004, battling Republicans to protect dollars for education, health care services and job creation. He was co-chair of President Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign in Nevada. Word is that he is considering a run for a House seat. He's always looking for the next challenge.

That last part, by the way, is no longer rumor, and at least one local opinion leader is so impressed with Horsford’s performance in Nevada that he wishes the Senator didn’t have to go:

Horsford is bright, hardworking and capable, with a remarkable personal story.

His father was murdered, and he was forced to leave UNR after his first semester to care for younger siblings while his mother struggled with addiction. He is the head of the Culinary Training Academy, the management-labor partnership that prepares workers for their jobs on the Las Vegas Strip. He has deep legislative experience and is known as collegial but tough.

In short, he’ll make probably make a fine congressman, which is why I wish he wouldn’t run. The real work must be done here, not in Washington.

We wish to congratulate Senator Horsford for this recognition, as it is extremely well deserved.

At its most recent meeting, the DLCC Board of Directors voted to formally welcome Arizona House Minority Leader Chad Campbell as its newest member.

Leader Campbell adds a strongly progressive voice to the national political scene. At a time when Republicans have launched unprecedented attacks against public education across the country, Leader Campbell has remained a tireless advocate for children and educational issues through his ongoing work with Communities in Schools of Arizona and the Center for Progressive Leadership, as well as his former work with Children's Action Alliance, the state's leading non-profit organization fighting for children and families.

As a legislator and a caucus leader, Campbell has earned frequent honors for his effectiveness on behalf of early literacy, environmental protection, and the working families of Arizona.

And best of all, Leader Campbell knows that deepening GOP radicalism must be confronted repeatedly and tirelessly, and he’s willing to bypass the traditional media filter to do it. We were particular fans of his 2010 Huffington Post column, “A Top 10 List of the Absurd Republican Legislative Ideas in Arizona.” (Sadly, some of the most extreme ideas on that list were actually passed by the GOP-controlled legislature.)

Leader Campbell represents Legislative District 14, based in Phoenix, Arizona.

The controversy surrounding former Maine GOP legislative candidate Brendan O’Brien (son New Hampshire GOP House Speaker Bill O’Brien) continues to deepen over his history of voting in two states.

Until now, most observers had been content to chastise the elder O’Brien for simultaneously advocating voter suppression tactics against young voters (because young voters are, quote, “voting liberal, voting their feelings, with no life experience”) despite the fact that his own college-age son had not only voted in multiple states over the course of a year, but ran for office as well.

The younger O’Brien, after all, has done absolutely nothing wrong. Citizens have a right to vote wherever they consider their residence, including the area where they go to school. It was the responsibility of local New Hampshire elections officials to notify the state of Maine when Brendan O’Brien registered to vote in New Hampshire, and they apparently did not do so. Therefore, the elder O’Brien’s hypocrisy was the important element of the story. Until now.

It turns out there’s one tiny little detail that has been overlooked:

The Attorney General’s Office has been asked to investigate the handling of voter records kept in Mont Vernon, hometown of Speaker of the House William O’Brien.

Town resident Joyce Cardoza filed a complaint this week after reading news reports that O’Brien’s son Brendan was registered to vote in both his hometown and in Lewiston, Maine, where he attended college and ran for public office in 2009.

Cardoza, a registered Democrat, noted that Speaker O’Brien’s wife Roxanne is one of three supervisors of the checklist who handle voter registration matters. State law requires local election officials to take specific steps to notify officials in a voter’s previous town of a change in registration.

In this case, the registration form young O’Brien filled out when he voted in Mont Vernon in November 2010 never made it to Lewiston. State law requires supervisors of the checklist to send a copy of the registration form to a voter’s previous town if it lies within New England.
[emphasis added]

The Attorney General’s Office will no doubt investigate the complaint, if it has merit. This could be a criminal matter, but it could also be a simple case of a local official’s (Roxanne O’Brien’s) ignorance of the laws governing elections and voting rights.

That’s certainly plausible, since she would not be the first O’Brien to have missed Democracy: 101.

Evan McMorris-Santoro at Talking Points Memo recently sat down with Indiana House Democratic Leader (and DLCC Board of Directors member) Pat Bauer, who urged national Democrats to stand up for core Democratic values in budget negotiations with Republicans.

We urge you to read the full article, but here's a quick excerpt of Leader Bauer's analysis:

"You're talking about the heart of the Democratic party," Bauer said, referring to those who rely on government entitlements. "We need clear differences between Republicans and Democrats."

Bauer said Obama should end the wars in Afghanistan, Libya and Iraq along with calling for new taxes on the rich if he wants to close the budget hole. Entitlement programs -- especially Social Security -- should be off the table entirely. That will help Democrats draw a contrast with Republicans on the campaign trail next year.

"[It would show] we know where we're at," Bauer said, and would paint a picture of "greedy Republicans" bent on paying for tax cuts for the rich on the backs of those who rely on government support.

The full article is available at Talking Points Memo.

In a vote that immediately sent shockwaves across the country, the New York state Legislature has voted to approve marriage equality.

With the fate of equality still in doubt nearly until the literal 11th hour Friday night –this despite near-unanimous support among Democratic legislators - the state Senate finally took up the bill.

Longtime equality supporter and Democratic Senator Thomas Duane gave an impassioned plea for support. And when the final tally was announced, the Senate chamber erupted in cheers and patriotic pride. See below for yourself:

But as moving as that moment was for us, watching live video of the vote, it was even more so for the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers whose chance at being treated equally hung in the balance for weeks. That hope and nervousness instantly turned to euphoria in New York and in rallies and pride celebrations across the country.

But nowhere was the joy and relief more palpable than in New York City:

New York’s Democratic legislators have been leading the fight for marriage equality since 2007, when similar legislation passed the overwhelmingly Democratic New York Assembly for the first time. The historically Republican Senate, where Democrats haven’t held more than a 1-seat majority since 1964, was a consistent roadblock to marriage equality.

But the turning point came this year when Senate Democrats announced that their conference was near-unanimous in favor of equality – offering a publicly united front and 29 of the 32 Senate votes needed for equality.

Congratulations to Senator Duane, Minority Leader Sampson, and Assembly Speaker Silver for lining up the critical Democratic votes for this historic victory.

It doesn’t matter what grade you’re in.

If you’re a student, whether an 8-year-old third grader or a college student government leader, Republicans have one message for you: your voice doesn’t matter, so shut up.

That was the thrust of Iowa state Senator Shawn Hamerlinck’s remarks to five student government leaders from state universities who came to speak at a budget hearing and advocate for fully funding higher education:

"I do not like it when students actually come here and lobby me for funds. That's just my opinion. I want to wish you guys the best. I want you to go home and graduate. But this political fear, leave the circus to us, OK?" he said.

Hamerlinck then proceeded to thank the student leaders for coming, and he said it was a good thing that they had carefully prepared their remarks. "But actually spending your time worrying about what we're doing up here, I don't want you to do that. Go back home. Thanks, guys," he said.

As dismissive and condescending as Hamerlinck’s remarks look in print, they’re an order of magnitude worse in audio. Take a listen below, if you can stand to hear the contempt dripping from his Hamerlinck’s voice (h/t Iowa Senate Democrats):

But Hamerlinck is hardly alone in his contempt for people who would be directly impacted by his education cuts. North Carolina GOP state Rep. Mike Stone called it “unconscionable” and said “anger completely shot through me” when he learned that elementary school students – including his own daughter – had written letters to state legislators as part of a school writing assignment. And who could forget New Hampshire GOP House Speaker Bill O’Brien’s stunning admission that his party’s discriminatory voter ID bill was intended specifically to disenfranchise students, because “they are kids voting liberal, voting their feelings, with no life experience”?

Other Iowa Republicans also joined the student-bashing bandwagon, including some in the GOP Senate leadership:

Sen. Steve Kettering, R-Lake View, ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said it was “plane asinine” that students “would be paraded in front of a politically driven show” set up by people who want the state to spend more money. “No one was invited today to speak for the taxpayers,” he noted.

Nevertheless, Hamerlinck’s remarks may be the most infuriating yet. Reps. Stone and O’Brien and Sens. Hamerlinck and Kettering all appear to take the view that students are just too naive to discuss policy. But only Sen. Hamerlinck was personally addressing five specific students who'd been invited to share their views, all of them student government leaders (elected in their own right, perhaps?) whose experience clearly makes them more qualified than the average student voter of any age to discuss the impact of higher education budget cuts.

But that obviously made no difference to Sen. Hamerlinck, who’s also the only legislator from these incidents who lists his occupation as an “Adjunct Professor" at Augustana and Black Hawk Colleges.

Maybe Senator Hamerlinck is just following the lead of Professor Hamerlinck in teaching students that there's no point thinking for themselves. But in politics, anyone with a point of view has a right to express it, and if the people don't think their elected officials are listening, they have a remedy that Shawn Hamerlinck clearly understands.

They can tell him to take his own advice and "go home."

In one of the GOP’s most blatantly personal gerrymandering moves so far, Virginia Republicans dismantled DLCC Treasurer and state House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong’s Martinsville-based 10th District, splitting it into several new districts with a GOP incumbent in each of them.

But Leader Armstrong announced yesterday that rather than taking the path of least resistance, he will be challenging Republican Charles Poindexter in the 9th District, where Leader Armstrong’s family roots go back over 160 years:

Anyone who wants to run for the House of Delegates should be able to state why. There are many challenges facing Franklin, Henry and Patrick counties. I believe I have the experience, the leadership and the energy to help find solutions to our problems. And I will continue to fight til the cows come home for a fair shake for hard-working families in our area.

So in announcing my bid for reelection I've come back to my roots. To a place that meant so much to me as a boy. No one has to tell me how to find the 77 Restaurant. Or Callaway or Snow Creek or Penhook or Boone's Mill. Quite a few people in my old district have urged me to continue to represent them..that they don't want to lose my voice in Richmond. I have listened.

Much of the newly constituted 9th house district is the old 10th house district. It contains western Henry, which I have represented for 20 years and Patrick County, which I have represented for 10 years. Moreover I represented southern Franklin County in my first 10 years in the House which included Ferrum and Henry. So despite what anyone might say over the coming months, this area is home. I was born here and raised here, and my family's roots in this area go back over 160 years.

How gutsy a call is this? Very. The 9th District is one of the most conservative of the districts which gained parts of the old 10th.

But Del. Poindexter has big reasons to worry about this upcoming race, starting with his own weak performance in previous elections. Poindexter dramatically underperformed the last time he faced major-party opposition, winning with just 46% of the vote in 2007 (John McCain dominated that district 62%-38% just a year later).

Leader Armstrong also begins the race with a pocket of strength in Patrick and Henry Counties, which he already represents in the old 10th District. Armstrong outperformed his district-wide total in both counties in 2009, winning them with nearly 58% of the vote in a challenging election year. And the northern half of the new 9th District, Franklin County, was the Democratic nominee’s strongest county in that 2007 race, as he nearly matched Poindexter’s 46%.

Together, these results suggest that Republicans will need more than the stroke of a pen to keep Ward Armstrong down.

Jeff Woods at the Nashville Scene has asked and answered a question many observers are wondering about Republican state legislative majorities around the country: “Is there a right-wing plank too extreme for GOP legislators to adopt? Not so far.”

Here are just a few of Woods’ nuttiest highlights of the Tennessee legislative session:

So, from Category A, we have proposals to bust the teachers' union, thus plugging a source of Democratic money; and to force voters to present photo identification, thus making it harder for reliable Democratic constituencies — the old and the poor — to vote.

And from Category B — well, give us a few hours. There are Republicans trying variously to create the state's own currency (perhaps in honor of the Civil War?), banish any mention of gay people in schools, strip away abortion rights, open college campuses to handguns, seize control of Medicare, and require presidential candidates to prove they are natural born citizens.

"It's kind of like I've fallen down a rabbit hole and I've woken up in Alice in Wonderland or Bizarro World or something," says Rep. Mike Turner, Democrat of Nashville.

This week, the House voted 73-24 to nullify Nashville's new anti-gay bias ordinance and to bar any city from enacting another one anywhere in Tennessee.

Woods also notes the predictable claim from embarrassed GOP leaders: that both sides are “a little bit extreme.”

But the sole example GOP House Speaker Beth Harwell could muster – a proposal for schools to grade parent participation – has its roots in the non-controversial view that positive parental involvement in is the most effective way to ensure children learn. The bill itself is an unorthodox approach, to be sure, but it’s also extremely weak tea compared to the rampant secessionism, birtherism, and homophobia pervading the GOP caucus.

But other GOP legislative leaders aren’t just comfortable with the crazy within, they welcome it. Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey even sees the 2010 election as proof that crazy sells, noting:

Baby, keep pouring it on, because the people of the state of Tennessee are with us.

We doubt the people of Tennessee voted to have anything "poured" on them.

New Hampshire Senate Minority Leader (and DLCC Board Secretary) Sylvia Larsen is on the front lines of the fight to keep her state from being flooded with crazy legislation from the new GOP legislative majorities. And as her recent editorial in the Nashua Telegraph reveals, Leader Larsen has her hands full in that task.

The list of GOP misdeeds is a long one, but here are a few highlights:

• Passing a right-to-work-for-less bill that would significantly reduce wages (HB 474).
• Passing a bill eliminating the minimum wage (HB 133).
• Repealing the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which helped create jobs in New Hampshire, reduced utility rates and helped our environment (HB 519).
• Eliminate compulsory education, essentially meaning that if kids don’t want an education, they can drop out at any time (HB 542).
• Allow violent and sexual predators to “max out” and be released from prison without any supervision (HB 524).
• Forming a House committee designed to impeach judges they don’t like (HR 7).
• Passing a resolution that declares they will nullify federal laws they don’t like (HCR 19).

We could add to that list GOP legislators’ participation in the “birther” and "deather" conspiracy theories; proposals to abolish universal kindergarten and the technology education requirement; and a voter ID bill designed to suppress the votes of individuals who are “voting liberal” (GOP House Speaker Bill O’Brien’s words).

And all of these shenanigans – and many more – come just months after a campaign in which Republicans promised a laser-like focus on jobs.

But New Hampshire voters now know they’ve been sold a bill of goods, as evidenced by an astounding University of New Hampshire poll in which “the newly elected Republican legislature” was the third most common response when voters were asked to name the “most important problem” facing the state. [hat tip - Blue Hampshire]

Only the economy and the state budget were mentioned more often in the poll question – and both of those are issues the newly elected Republican legislature has steadfastly ignored.