Cook Was Cookin' at the BU Washington Journalism Center

By Heidi Masek and Felicia Morton

Charlie Cook, the political guru featured on "CNN," "Meet the Press" and "Nightline" made a guest appearance at Boston University's Washington DC campus on Sept. 29.

Cook, the founder of "The Cook Report," which many politicians consider their "bible" for tracking political races - came to offer a few insights to Linda Killian's political reporting class from his years of experience as a much sought-after political analyst.

"House incumbents are like roaches, you cannot kill them," said Cook, referring the fund-raising advantages enjoyed by incumbents.

Cook said the upcoming election is the most important since World War II because House Democrats need to win just six new seats to capture the majority.  And in the Senate, if Republicans lose just four seats, the Democrats could win control there. Cook said because the stakes are so high and the congressional races so close, this will be the most expensive election in history with some House races costing as much as $3 to $8 million. For his report, Cook said he and his staff spend extensive amounts of time personally interviewing each candidate for House, Senate and Presidential races. They conduct interviews and collect information for their bios in order to evaluate where they stand on the issues. Another important factor is how well the candidates can articulate their political positions. His goal is to figure out a race, understand it, and be able to predict it.

"Almost 90 percent of Republicans support Gov. George W. Bush and 85 percent of Democrats support Vice-President Al Gore, which leaves a small amount of swing voters and a very close race," said Cook.

Also historic is the number of seats in the Supreme Court. Cook said he expects that four will be open during the next administration.  Currently, there are four conservatives judges and five liberals. In addition to hearing Cook's wealth of political information and statistics, it was also interesting to hear his personal take on the members of Congress. "Some are smart and intelligent and some are real idiots," said Cook. Needless to say, the class enjoyed his candor.