CAPITOL NOTEBOOK: '99 BEST, WORST OF LEGISLATURE REMEMBERED.

Byline: Terri Hardy and Dorothy Korber

FOG drifted in clammy wisps last January as Sacramento welcomed a new governor and ushered in the first Democratic administration in 16 years. In the months since then, we've completed one full legislative cycle inside the Capitol. And to round out the year, we've compiled some of our favorite oddities, quips and insights in a Capitol Best and Worst List for 1999:

Good news/bad news

Good: Gov. Gray Davis pummeled legislators to get the budget out by the constitutional deadline of June 15 - and for the first time in 13 years, they made the deadline.

Bad: So puffed up was Davis by the accomplishment that his office staged a jaw-dropping budget-signing ceremony. Under the broiling sun, schoolchildren and veterans were propped on the steps, and lawmakers - many of whom had done no real work on the document - sweated and smiled. The most memorable moment was the piped-in trumpet fanfare that swelled as Davis emerged, immaculate in a dark suit.

Last laugh

The most anguished and highly publicized debate in the Legislature occurred in June when Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl, D-Encino, lost a bill by one vote. It was AB 222, a civil-rights measure that would have prohibited gay-bashing at public schools. Kuehl, an open lesbian, took the rebuff personally. But she also went quietly to work, slid her defeated bill's language into AB 537, turned on the pressure with fellow Democrats - and got the law passed in the session's last hours.

Misguided nickname

We enjoy crafting nicknames for some of the more colorful characters in the Legislature. (We welcome your submissions, as well.) One of our favorites, though, turned out to be a misnomer.

We dubbed Assemblyman George Runner, R-Lancaster, the ``Barbecue King'' because he had managed to load up so many pork-barrel projects for his district. Runner, a member of the budget committee, was a key Republican vote and was rewarded by the committee with pork. But a funny thing happened after the Legislature passed its version of the budget - Davis axed most of Runner's projects. Sorry, George.

Crankiest patient

When ``Iron'' John Burton, Senate speaker pro tempore, underwent an angioplasty in September, Sacramento was full of sympathy. Burton's own press officer summed up the feeling: ``Our thoughts and prayers are with the hospital staff who will be dealing with him at this time.''

Biggest screw-up

That would be the scoring debacle on the Stanford 9 achievement test. Among several major problems was a computer error that created ``serious inaccuracies'' in the test scores for more than 4 million California students taking the test. So, what is the yardstick for the governor's new accountability program? Yep. The Stanford 9.

Stinging comment

Assemblywoman Carole Migden, a San Francisco Democrat, is well-known for her acid tongue. One day in August, Migden let loose with a humdinger that stunned even her fans on the Assembly Appropriations committee. Responding to a fellow Democrat's comment that fathers sometimes pack their children's lunches, Migden shot back, ``You mean the fathers that aren't drunk and hung over?''