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Sanderson, Broward's only Republican House member, is also one of three Broward lawmakers on the House budget subcommittee for human services. The good news here is that the House didn't cut programs as much as the Senate. The bad news is that the budget cut programs by $400 million.

Showing quiet tenacity, Sanderson continues to press for answers to some of society's most contentious issues, such as adoptions or the rights of children in divorce proceedings to see both parents and grandparents. Her adoption bill did not pass, but she continues to educate fellow lawmakers about the enormous emotional strain in cases where the biological father tries to challenge an adoption. What Sanderson possesses in great abundance is patience. She will need it if she hopes to reform Florida adoption law.

Sanderson also won passage of a bill providing health-insurance coverage for diabetics who self-manage the disease at home, and she wrote the budget provision allowing a downsizing of South Florida State Hospital.

TRACY STAFFORD
D-Wilton Manors
1996 House rank: * * *
(1995 rank: * * *)

Stafford felt the force of special-interest lobbying this session, when he tried to put the so-called date-rape drug Rohypnol on a tougher drug schedule, saying it has no accepted medical use in the United States. Amid widespread abuse of the drug, nicknamed ``roofies,'' lawmakers agreed to tighten penalties for its abuse. But after aggressive lobbying by pharmaceutical giant Hoffman-LaRoche, they did not reclassify the drug, rejecting pleas by prosecutors and federal Drug Enforcement Administration officials.

As chairman of Broward's legislative delegation, Stafford guided through a batch of local bills, including one giving Weston and Bonaventure residents a chance at cityhood. He helped organize a tri-county task force with Dade and Palm Beach counties, and passed a bill targeting the use of rental property for drug-dealing or prostitution.

Stafford and Rep. Ben Graber were the only two Broward House members who supported Speaker Peter Wallace's failed proposal to ban expensive lobbyist-paid meals.

JACK TOBIN
D-Margate
1996 House rank: * * *
(1995 rank: * * *)

The chairman of the Business & Professional Regulation Committee got the business this session, and he gave as good as he got. After slogging through those annual debates over whether yacht brokers should be deregulated by the state (no) and whether consumer complaints against state-licensed businesses should be public when filed (no way), Tobin moved on to weightier issues. He took the lead, with no apologies, in making sure lobbyists can continue to pick up House members' dinner tabs during the session.

Tobin helped pass another bill, allowing the use of human hair, as well as urinalysis, to test for drugs on the job. Tobin filed the bill at the request of lobbyist Ron Book, who lobbies for a hair-testing firm partly owned by the hairless one, H. Wayne Huizenga.

Like him or not, Tobin is a seasoned legislator who knows how things work. Little wonder his Broward mates made him the designated debater in the last hours of the session, when an obscure Republican tried in vain to amend the Weston incorporation bill at the request of two Weston dissidents.


MANDY DAWSON-WHITE
D-Fort Lauderdale
1996 House rank: * *
(1995 rank: * * *)

As vice chairwoman of the House Health Care Committee, Dawson-White's natural area of emphasis is health. She sponsored a bill, now on Gov. Chiles' desk, that sets up an osteoporosis prevention and education program while improving health-insurance protections for victims of the degenerative bone disease. She also won passage of a bill requiring birthing centers to pay a $20 fee for every live birth, to pay for infant screening tests for congenital disorders, and creation of a task force on children's health care.

But there's a nagging contradiction about this legislator. Though a public health advocate, Dawson-White paradoxically is also one of the most outspoken pro-tobacco Democrats in the House. She almost single-handedly sank Rep. Lois Frankel's bill to ban smoking in restaurants, and she voted with Big Tobacco when the House Commerce Committee voted 16-14 against weakening the state's landmark 1994 anti-tobacco law.

JOHN RAYSON
D-Pompano Beach
1996 House rank: * *
(1995 rank: * *)

Rayson had a productive session, but he apparently didn't impress the rankers. On Rayson's radar screen this spring were bills to limit class size in lower grades; regulating professional fireworks displays, preventing fired teachers from getting hired elsewhere and requiring young people to take boating safety courses.

Boating safety has long been the bane of conservatives who saw it as heavy-handed government intervention. But Rayson helped get it passed.

As chairman of a select water-policy committee, Rayson was unable to forge a compromise, though his version was better than one in the Senate that was pro-farmer, killing a deal. His persistence resulted in passage, after five years, of a bill creating local boards to deal with complaints against HMOs, after convincing some Republicans to change their votes -- and they noticed back home. ``He did a tremendous job turning that vote around,'' said Bill Kling, a Democrat active in health-care issues.

DEBBIE
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ
D-Davie
1996 House rank: * *
(1995 rank: 15)

What goes up must come down, and Wasserman Schultz's ranking sank noticeably this year. It was inevitable. The novelty of being the youngest woman ever elected to the Legislature has worn off, and she's being judged increasingly on her skill at forging a consensus on key issues -- such as higher education. As chairwoman of that committee, she at times struggled to win support for her agenda, but she was a strong, early voice for elevating the minimum high school graduation standard to a 2.0.

Her triumphs included a bill to reduce so-called ``drive-thru deliveries'' by requiring health insurers to pay for coverage of longer maternity stays, and follow-up care at home, if a doctor deems it medically necessary. She worked on extending a moratorium on homeowner insurance cancellations and secured a state grant, to match private money, for a kindergarten and community center in Weston.