THE HOUSE

Mackenzie has evolved from an idealistic liberal to a pragmatic player on the House leadership team. When she talks, everyone listens, but chances are it's not about Florida's future but the mechanics of moving the next bill on the calendar. She's a tactician. She helps set the agenda. And she can kill your bill ``Black Flag dead,'' as they say in Tallahassee.

Again this year, Mackenzie is the House's highest-ranking woman, a tribute to her seniority and role as co-chairwoman of the Rules Committee, which make her one of the speaker's lieutenants and not someone to be taken lightly. Her position gives her clout on many fronts without having to file bills, though she did file a few, like the $15 million tax rebate for a fishing museum in Dania.

Mackenzie wrote budget language restricting the use of seaport money for a new bayfront arena for the Miami Heat, and as a member of a key House budget subcommittee she helped get $270,000 in the budget for Weston's after-school community center.

JOSEPHUS
EGGELLETION JR.
D-Lauderdale Lakes
1996 House rank: 27
(1995 rank: * * *)

This student of the process cracked the top tier in the Herald rankings in his fourth year in the House, and did it by emerging as a forceful debater on major issues such as charter schools and welfare reform.

Eggelletion was a co-sponsor of the amendment that limits the number of charter schools in large urban districts to seven. And, as a member of the conference committee that wrote the welfare bill, he pushed for a four-year lifetime limit on benefits when other lawmakers wanted a two-year cap, and later defended the bill as fair to children.

A Medicaid fraud bill Eggelletion guided through both houses will allow investigators for the attorney general's office to become certified police officers so they can make arrests. This two-term Democrat seemed surer of himself this session, and The Herald's rankers took notice.

STEVE FEREN
D-Sunrise
1996 House rank: * * *
(1995 rank: * * *)

Feren's final session in the House (he's hoping to move to the Senate this fall) was modestly successful. His biggest bill -- to punish underage smokers with fines or driver's license suspensions -- went up in smoke late in the session and did not clear either house.

But don't blame Big Tobacco for this one. Cigarette lobbyists, in fact, supported the bill. But opponents in both houses, including anti-tobacco Democrats, said the bill was unenforceable and unfair to kids if Florida didn't also limit tobacco advertising aimed at children.

The low-key lawyer works mainly on judiciary and education issues, such as increasing the penalties for DUI manslaughter and giving Floridians a better sense of how lottery dollars help schools. He co-sponsored a bill, already signed by Gov. Chiles, that requires tighter background checks on court-appointed guardians of children in abuse and neglect cases.



STEVE GELLER
D-Hallandale
1996 House rank: * * *
(1995 rank: * * *)

A toast to the Capitol's chairman of vice. Geller, chairman of the House committee regulating gambling and alcohol, had a productive session.

In fact, he accomplished something that previous chairmen of the House Regulated Industries Committee did not: He got all sides in the fractious parimutuel industry to agree on something, with a bill providing tax breaks for racetracks and jai-alai frontons and new varieties of gambling, including legal betting on poker in so-called ``cardrooms'' and simulcasting of entire racing programs at out-of-town tracks.

To close the deal, Geller made extra concessions to Hialeah Park that allow the historic but floundering thoroughbred track to televise races from nearby competitor Calder. What's at stake, Geller said, is nothing less than the survival of what he called the fourth-largest industry in Florida.

BEN GRABER
D-Coral Springs
1996 House rank: * * *
(1995 rank: 19)

Graber got his share of attention this session, including a brief police escort after reporting veiled threats from abortion opponents. But he never did hear that bill requiring a 24-hour abortion waiting period.

In the last hour of his last session, Graber forced the Senate to accept his version of an HMO reform bill, saying a Senate version was too weak but realizing Senate President Jim Scott wanted to tout HMO reforms to editorial writers this summer.

With his deadpan expression and droll demeanor, Graber keeps opponents guessing about his real motives. In a farewell speech before embarking on a campaign for Congress, Graber explained how things work in Tallahassee: ``The game you are watching is not the game being played, and if you know that, you know exactly what we do,'' he said.

Graber was one of two Broward legislators (Tracy Stafford was the other) who supported Speaker Peter Wallace's failed proposal to ban expensive lobbyist-paid meals.

FRED LIPPMAN
D-Hollywood
1996 House rank: * * *
(1995 rank: 24)

While it is true that Lippman's gaudy four-star rankings in past years may have been inflated because of his seniority, it's also true he accomplished a lot more this year and deserved a higher ranking.

Lippman has a knack for attaching his name to high-profile issues that get publicity if not always universal political support. Three in particular this year were the creation of a separate Department of Health; the expansion of the Healthy Kids Corporation Act of free health care to low-income children; and a bipartisan economic development bill that abolishes the Department of Commerce and gives tax breaks to businesses including a certain NBA team in Miami.

While the children's health-care program will be expanded statewide to help 20,000 more kids, the $7 million appropriated by the Legislature is a fraction of the $33 million Gov. Chiles had sought. And on the Department of Health bill, Lippman made sure Republican Sen. William ``Doc'' Myers got a lot of credit, since the bill wouldn't have passed without GOP support.