Chicagoan Max Engling, a 25-year-old former model and Republican staff assistant for the House Administration Committee, topped The Hill’s eighth annual list of 50 most beautiful people working on Capitol Hill. Only one other Illinoisan, a Democrat and policy aide to a Washington state congressman, made the cut.

According to the story accompanying his photo, Engling was discovered while waiting tables at a TGI Friday’s and attending college at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. After spending three years modeling for Kohl’s, Carson’s, Sears, and doing a commercial for Subway, he quit to pursue politics. On leaving his day job, he waits tables, as does his wife, at D.C.’s Ruth Chris Steak House.

I had to scroll down to #45 before I found the other Illinoisan, 24-year-old Ben Halle from Champaign, who told the Hill reporter, “I plan my days around what I’m going to have for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Eating is probably the thing I look forward to the most.”  He also offered advice on personal hygiene: “In college [at the University of Iowa] my friends used to make fun of me for not showering every day. So my tip would be to shower only when you really feel like it.”

As with previous years, most of the folks on the list are not members of the House or Senate, but, typically, young aides to congressmen. Four of the 50 are actual members of the House; only one is a senator: Republican Rep. Michele Bachman of Minnesota (#10), Democratic Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut (#16), Republican Rep. Nan Hayworth of New York (# 33), Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia (#41), and Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire (#12)—who is sometimes mentioned as a possible VP for Mitt Romney.

If Jesse Jackson Jr. is at all tuned in to such vanities from his undisclosed location, he need not despair about not being on this year’s list after making the cut in 2010. The rules of The Hill require that no one, no matter how hot, can make the list twice. Other past winners from Illinois include Rep. Aaron Schock in 2009 and Rep. Adam Kinzinger last year. (Where are the female lawmakers from Illinois?)

On a related note, in 2010, I wrote about another Hill list—“The 25 hardest working lawmakers.” I found only one lawmaker from Illinois—Champaign’s Tim Johnson who is retiring. Acccording to a Hill editor, the list was compiled just once and never repeated.

Hmm, I wonder why.

[Full disclosure: I contribute to The Hill’s Pundits Blog.]