We’ve Got The Power?
Vince Leibowitz | May 22, 2006 | Comments 0
Congress.org has released its list of “power rankings” for members of the U.S. House and Senate. According to those rankings, Texas should be bringing home some serious federal bacon, with three Congressmen ranked in among the top 20 in the House.
The Dallas Morning News did a little analysis of the rankings, but didn’t go into too much depth with the sub-rankings and all that.
Below is how our delegation came out. Make sure if you are clicking on an individual member, to check out their various legislative, power, and influence scores. If you do, you’ll note that a number of the Republicans (including those in the top for the state) actually fair pretty poorly when it comes to legislative successes. This particular ranking measures a member’s success at having bills and amendments passed at various points in the legislative process.
For example, Mike McCaul and Kenny Marchant rank 414 and 411 respectively in terms of legislative success for the period studied. . Though both were Freshmen during the session considered, they had terrible success rates. Sheila Jackson Lee had the highest legislative success rate of any Democrat from Texas, ranking 10th in the entire House in that area. Ahead of her were DeLay and Barton at six and five respectively.
When it comes to rankings based on overall tenure and committe assignments—the position scores—DeLay (2) and Bonilla (15) are the only Texans in the top 20. Joe Barton comes in 24th, Lamar Smith comes in at 48 and Chet Edwards comes in at 50, making him the highest ranking Texas Democrat in this area.
In terms of influence rankings, Barton comes in 12th and no other Texans are in the top 20. Pete Sessions comes in next at 25. With Democrats out of power, it’s understandable that Texas D’s rankings would be fairly low. Sheila Jackson Lee came in top among Texas Democrats at 163, with Sylvestre Reyes close behind at 164, beating out Republican Ron Paul (165).
Full rating list below the jump.
| Name | House: |
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Filed Under: Texas Congressional Delegation
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