Earmark Data Added To Power Criteria for First Time / Clinton, Obama, McCain in Virtual Tie for Power

CONFERENCE CALL AT 1:00 PM EST ON MARCH 3

WASHINGTON, DC. – The 2008 Congressional Power Rankings by Knowlegis (www.knowlegis.net) were released today on Congress.org (http://congress.org).  The new rankings include for the first time the influence of earmark data on legislators’ Power Score.  The rankings also include a breakdown of presidential candidates’ power scores in the US Senate. 

This year’s analysis produced compelling results:  

1. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) was the highest ranking Presidential candidate in the Senate at #9, closely followed by Senator John McCain (R-AZ) at #10.  Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) was ranked #11. 
2. At the bottom of their Power Rankings were Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) and Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID), both of whom have been implicated in scandal in 2007.

Today marks the fourth edition of the Power Rankings, which are created by Knowlegis using more than 20 objective criteria measuring power in Congress.  Knowlegis is part of the Capitol Advantage family of companies and provides data and software to lobbyists, which includes “Congress at Your Fingertips” directories, Capwiz·XC grassroots tool, and the Knowlegis suite of government relations tools.

The 2008 Power Rankings by Knowlegis tracked Members of Congress power from Jan. 1, 2007 to Dec. 31, 2007.  The public and the media can search and organize lists to view rankings by state, committee membership, tenure (class in Congress), or Power Category.  The 2008 release includes some new criteria, including both the amount and number of earmarks a legislator has secured.  The earmark data was provided by Taxpayers for Common Sense.

The Knowlegis Power Rankings have sparked significant interest since 2006 as a tool to provide citizens with objective information to analyze the activities of their elected officials.  Power Rankings was featured in hundreds of articles, broadcast stories, and web sites nationwide; referenced in more than a dozen congressional races; and even featured by some candidates in their 2006 campaign commercials and web sites, including the Hank Johnson-Cynthia McKinney primary in Georgia.

The Power Rankings project was led by Brad Fitch, CEO of Knowlegis.  “Power Rankings is a tool of government transparency for citizens,” Fitch said.  “We take data available on the Internet and compile it to help people assess the performance of their legislators.  There are a lot of information sources available to voters to assess how their Members of Congress are doing, including daily newspapers, television news stories, and from the legislators themselves.  Power Rankings is just another transparency tool for citizens to judge their elected official,” he said.

Fitch also noted that the Knowlegis Power Rankings cannot reflect everything that a Member of Congress does in Congress.  “Elected officials do some work that isn’t attributed in the public record,” Fitch said.  “We integrated every measurable piece of publicly available data to create an assessment of each Member of Congress.  This may not be the totality of a member’s contribution to his or her constituents, but it can serve as a valuable tool for citizens when they are judging their elected officials,” he said.

Brad Fitch will be available in a conference call Monday, March 3, 1 pm EST. 
Conference Call Number:  877-537-0850  Conference Code:  717-722-9168

The criteria for Power Rankings were developed by Knowlegis in consultation with academic experts and Congressional staff by identifying factors that contributed to the exercise of power in 2007.  Knowlegis staff carefully researched, sorted, and considered thousands of data points to determine what factors legitimately demonstrate the exercise of power.  Researchers reviewed thousands of media articles, hundreds of bills that passed out of committee and through each chamber, and more than 1,000 floor amendments.  The team limited the research to the 2007 calendar year through December 31, 2007.

The concept for Power Rankings was developed by Bob Hansan, President of Capitol Advantage (Knowlegis’ parent company).  “Americans spend more time analyzing the individual statistics of their favorite baseball players than they do assessing the performance of their elected officials,” said Hansan.  “’We thought it would be great to give citizens an additional scorecard to measure their Members of Congress as part of their overall judgment of their elected officials,” he said. 

Hansan oversees four companies, including Knowlegis, Capitol Advantage (creators of CapwizXC), Capitol Advantage Publishing (publishers of the Congress At Your Fingertips guide), and 720 Strategies

Conference Call Information:

WHO: Brad Fitch, CEO of Knowlegis
WHEN: Monday, March 3, 1:00 pm (EST)
WHAT: Conference Call on Power Rankings
WHERE: Conference Call #: 877-537-0850. Conference Code: 717-722-9168

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