It always intrigues me that whenever Panhandle media make note of the region’s legislative delegation, they find a way to omit the name of one of its best.

State Sen. Bob Duncan, a Republican who lives in Lubbock, is on Texas Monthly’s list of 10 best legislators. Duncan’s Senate district sprawls through much of West Texas’s South Plains region, but it does include a tiny corner of the Panhandle.

It’s good – for me, at least – to know the region is represented by someone who’s held in fairly universal esteem by those who watch Texas government’s wheels grind along.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/best-and-worst-legislators-2013

None of the Panhandle’s other lawmakers made the “Best” or “Worst” lists. Good to know that our delegation isn’t embarrassing itself – and the rest of us – by “honored” with dubious distinctions such as being on the “10 Worst” list published every other year by Texas Monthly. But it is disappointing, at least a little, to see that we haven’t made the “Best” list this year.

We don’t lack for hard-working legislators. Republican state Reps. John Smithee and Four Price of Amarillo are serious fellows who take their jobs seriously. Smithee’s been doing it longer (since 1985) than any of the Panhandle delegation and, thus, has earned the title of “dean” of the bunch. Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, the “other” Panhandle senator, also is a serious fellow who has yet to make a splash big enough for the Texas Monthly gurus to notice.

It’s not that Texas Monthly is the end-all to this kind of recognition. It’s just that the magazine’s lists are cause for celebration or derision when their names are revealed.

I’ll now give a hand-clap to Bob Duncan, one of the best of the state’s 181 state legislators. He’s one of ours to boot.