Nobody, ever, has pinned a poster of Gary Peters to their bedroom wall. Most Americans, shown his face, could not place him. If forced to guess, they might land on “regional insurance executive,” which I suppose is close enough to the truth.
Peters is the senior senator from Michigan, and he is retiring next year. He is also, by a wide margin, the single most effective American legislator of the past two decades. In a single two-year span, he personally authored 19 stand-alone bills that became law, the most by any senator in four decades. The nonpartisan Center for Effective Lawmaking has rated him the most effective U.S. senator for three consecutive Congresses, based on a formula that measures their success in advancing meaningful legislation. His score in the most recent Congress is the highest they have ever recorded, for anyone, ever.
