28. Judy Jacobs & Joseph Caracappa

Caracappa has to lead the sometimes fractious Republican majority in Suffolk, where the new chief executive is from the other party. By forming the Rules Committee to control the flow of proposed bills, Caracappa (R-Selden) is already curbing the Dems. In Nassau County, Judy Jacobs (pictured) leads a thin Democratic majority in the Legislature, but last year she got the smoking ban passed. Jacobs (D-Woodbury) ran the recent scandal hearings with a tough hand: the Republicans would have had them go on forever, but Jacobs closed them down despite the GOP uproar. She has the additional power of having a county executive on the same team.