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BACKGROUND ON POWER RANKINGS
Measures of Power and Effectiveness Based on Congressional Efforts in 2005
How powerful are those who represent you in Congress? Power is often hard to define, but for Congress it boils down to how effective is one at advancing an agenda, whether it is a personal agenda, party agenda or district or state agenda. Much of the power in Congress derives from tenure or years in Congress, which drive assignment to key committees (and eventually status as chair or ranking member). But years of service in Congress does not automatically equate to power as some long term members have very little power while freshman can sometimes be effective or powerful right out of the starting gate.
Knowlegis, in consultation with academic experts and practicing congressional staff, examined dozens of factors that could contribute to the exercise of power and effective outcomes for their efforts in 2005. We created these Power Rankings as a tool for citizens to assess their elected officials. Of course this tool does not reflect the totality of contribution that a Member of Congress makes to his constituents or the nation, but it does measure many of those factors that both the public and official Washington have come to recognize as the levers and characteristics of power. This exercise provides a baseline for power in Congress as exercised in 2005 and will be updated regularly to provide citizens with this additional measurement tool to assess their elected officials.
Power Rankings Criteria
Our project team identified 15 characteristics of power. These characteristics were then measured and weighted to determine the relative power demonstrated by members of Congress in 2005. We grouped those characteristics into three broad categories.
1) Position: How much power could the legislator wield through his/her position in the Congress by virtue of tenure, committee assignments or leadership position? The project team developed weightings for all committees and subcommittees, taking into consideration majority or minority status of the member.
2) Influence: How much power did the legislator demonstrate to influence the congressional agenda or outcome of votes through the media, congressional caucuses or money contributed to other members of Congress by their campaign committees or leadership PACs?
3) Legislative Activity: How much power did the legislator demonstrate through the passage of legislation or shaping legislation through amendments? The team eliminated from that data items which did not substantially change the bill or existing law. These included amendments dealing with technical changes or bills of a ceremonial, commemorative nature such as naming of post offices or other public buildings, or non-binding resolutions that expressed the "sense of the Congress."
In addition, the project team recognized that members of Congress can exert or possess power that can’t be measured by these standard measures. Therefore, we created the "Sizzle/Fizzle" factor. For example, Sizzle factors can include a legislator’s unique background and experience (Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) or relationships (Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) or newfound popularity (Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) that somehow adds weight to their power that is not scored in the other categories. In contrast, Fizzle factors can be applied to legislators who have seen their power diminish during the year, despite their position, due to scandal or other factors that impair the ability of the Member to be effective. This was the only subjective criteria and was not weighted heavily in the overall ratings.
All of the data used in the Power Rankings is publicly available, much of it on the Internet.
Methodology
Knowlegis staff carefully researched, sorted and considered thousands of data points to determine what legitimately demonstrates the exercise of power and its effectiveness. The team limited the research to the 2005 calendar year. Our researchers reviewed thousands of media articles, hundreds of bills that passed out of committee and through each chamber, as well as over a thousand amendments that attempted to shape the outcome of legislation. We collected data on the leadership, committee, and caucus positions of each Member of Congress in their chamber, researched relevant campaign contributions, and considered any characteristic or action that could contribute to their Sizzle-Fizzle factor.
Limitations of Research
The Power Rankings project team acknowledges that members of Congress sometimes exercise power in ways that cannot be seen or measured. The most tangible example of this is the ability to steer federal funding to their state through the appropriations process – called "earmarking." Currently, this process is done in secret, although Congress is considering legislation which would reveal the sponsors of all earmarks. While some members of Congress publicize their work in this and other areas through press releases, sometimes offices share credit for accomplishments, or embellish their role, thereby masking the true source of power. Therefore, we measured only that which could be measured. In other words, we did not want to mistake puffery for power.
In addition, we did not measure some variables such as effectiveness in assisting constituents in the district and state, known as "casework." Nor did we measure legislators’ visibility in the district and state, such as public appearances or communication with voters. These factors, while crucial to a Member’s re-election, are hard to measure and rarely contribute to power and effectiveness in the House or Senate.
Research Team
Brad Fitch:
Brad Fitch is the co-founder and CEO of Knowlegis. Fitch has spent 20 years in Washington as a journalist, congressional aide, consultant, college instructor, and writer/researcher. After working as a radio and television reporter in the mid-1980’s, Fitch began working on Capitol Hill in 1988. During his 13 years on Capitol Hill, he served in a variety of positions for four members of Congress including: press secretary and legislative director for a House member, campaign manager for a House member, communications director for a House committee, communications director for a U.S. Senator, and chief of staff for a freshman House member.
Fitch left working in Congress in 2001 to become Deputy Director of the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF), a non-profit, non-partisan organization that advises congressional offices on how to improve operations. As the Deputy Director of CMF, he served as a management consultant for members of Congress, offering confidential guidance, conducting staff training programs, and writing publications on enhancing the performance of individual congressional offices and the institution. He served as editor of Setting Course: A Congressional Management Guide for the 108th and 109th Congress editions. In 2005, Fitch managed CMF’s "Communicating with Congress" project and co-authored the project’s first report, How Capitol Hill is Coping with the Surge in Citizen Advocacy.
In 2004, Fitch authored Media Relations Handbook for Agencies, Associations, Nonprofits, and Congress, (TheCapitol.Net), a 340-page guide for public relations professionals in the public affairs community. He also is an adjunct Associate Professor at American University’s School of Communication. He received his B.A. degree in Political Science from Johns Hopkins University and his M.A. degree in Journalism and Public Affairs from American University.
Dr. Dennis Johnson:
Dennis Johnson is professor of political management at the George Washington University. He is the author of No Place for Amateurs: How Political Consultants Are Reshaping American Democracy (2001) and Congress Online: Bridging the Gap Between Citizens and Their Representatives (2004), and a wide variety of other publications dealing with Congress, public policy, and elections. Dr. Johnson has been a longtime observer of Capitol Hill, and has been the director of the Master of Arts in Legislative Affairs program and associate dean of the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington. He was the principal investigator of "Congress Online," a two-and-one-half year joint research project with the Congressional Management Foundation, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, which examined the impact of online communications on Capitol Hill. His current research interests focus on the history of Congress and public policymaking, and he is completing a major work entitled The Laws that Shaped America. Dr. Johnson received his Ph.D. from Duke University.
James Vaughn:
James Vaughn recently joined Capitol Advantage/Knowlegis as Vice President for Business Development working with media companies, informal groups and average citizens to develop tools to provide transparency and accountability of Congress through online tools including Congress.org. Prior to joining them, he served as the Deputy Program Manager on President Bush’s USA Services E-Government initiative developing federal-wide standards for citizen to government communications with a focus on new and emerging technologies. This was a natural outgrowth of his work as Director of Government and Politics for America Online where he created GovernmentGuide.com and many other online tools and products to help citizens connect with elected officials and government agencies at all levels. He also developed the highly successful 2002 and 2004 election portals for America Online in partnership with CNN and others. These projects grew out of research he conducted while securing his Master’s in Public Administration at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government in 1999.
Robb Hill:
Robb is the CTO and co-founder of Knowlegis. Previously, he worked as the director of Software Engineering for Capitol Advantage from 2002 until joining Knowlegis in 2006. Before joining Capitol Advantage, he owned an IT consulting business for non-profits and associations. Prior to running his own company, Robb was senior webmaster for the American Red Cross. Originally from Ft. Worth, Texas, he resides in Maryland with his wife.
Knowlegis Research Staff: The Knowlegis Research Staff is comprised of individuals who are trained on collecting and analyzing data related to the democratic processes at the state and local level. This full-time group collects data for Knowlegis and its clients. Some of the Power Rankings data was already collected as part of Knowlegis commercial enterprise, and some additional requirements were added for this research project.
Acknowledgements:
Our thanks to the many experts who helped review our data and work and provided valuable insight and direction. Our special thanks to current Congressional staff who offered their viewpoints and insight.
Power Rankings © 2006 Knowlegis, LLC
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