1.   Half the bills introduced each year are written by lobbyists, who often serve alongside elected lawmakers on special legislative committees.

2.   Barr made it his business to know newly elected lawmakers better than they knew themselves.

3.   It is always worth applauding when elected lawmakers resist pressure from well-heeled special interests in order to do right by the public.

4.   That initiative prohibited newly elected lawmakers from joining the legislative retirement system, limiting their retirement benefits for state service to Social Security.

5.   The elected governor and the elected state lawmakers, of course, belong at the top of any public state policy.

6.   A newly elected lawmaker was shot to death by a drunken passerby at a roadside crash in El Salvador, police said Sunday.

7.   A newly elected state lawmaker who called for the killing of police officers in certain cases resigned Wednesday under pressure from his party and the voters.

8.   A newly elected Republican state lawmaker has enraged his constituents, party leaders and police by saying he favors killing police officers when they cross the line.

9.   All elected lawmakers must be approved by the house.