New Web Site Lets Users Play Congress
FantasyCape
Cape Cod Times
Paul Crocetti
Boston University Washington News Service
October 26, 2006
WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 —Usually the words “Congress” and “game” do not go together. But a new Web site, FantasyCongress.org, has combined the two in the hope that people will pay more attention to government.
The site is similar to online fantasy sports leagues where users score points, for example, with home runs or touchdowns. In Fantasy Congress they score when the legislators on their “team” succeed in moving bills through the Congress.
Only three weeks old, the site already has 14,000 registered users, said Andrew Lee, a senior at Claremont McKenna College in California , who created the site with three of his friends.
“The thing we care about the most, it’s getting people involved in Congress,” said Lee, a philosophy, politics and economics major.
Zach McLaughlin, a civics teacher at Sandwich High School, said he thinks the site might appeal to certain students.
“There is a niche group that would be interested but it’s not something that would cultivate new converts,” he said.
McLaughlin said the site’s problem lies in its scoring system. The points are only based on the strength of a member’s piece of legislation. For example, when a legislator’s bill gets referred to committee, that member gets 5 points. When a legislator’s bill gets signed into law, that member receives 120 points.
“They’re removing the value part of the equation,” McLaughlin said, noting that he thinks youths form their opinions of a member of Congress as a result of beliefs, rather than legislative success.
“Here, effective leadership is based on legislation,” he said. “They’re making a judgment based on how many pieces of paper a member of Congress has passed.”
Added Steven Broderick, Rep. Bill Delahunt’s (D-Mass.) press secretary: “The system is not an accurate barometer of what members of Congress actually do.”
Sorting through all that legislation when updating the site can be overwhelming, especially with mid-terms on the mind, Lee said.
“Congress is able to go ahead and change the laws, write them in different ways,” he said. “But we want to take it to the next level.”
Lee said he hopes to have several options for drafting players, as well as new forums available, by the time the next Congress takes over in January.
People who work for the current Congress are already taking note, according to Lee.
“Congressional staffers love the game but they don’t want us to say their names because they didn’t draft their bosses,” he said with a laugh.
Some staffers do, however, said Brigid O’Rourke, state press secretary for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.).
“For a sports fan and a political junkie, this is the best of both worlds,” she wrote in an email. “I can have a Tom Brady on my fantasy team, and now I can have John Kerry too!”
Both Massachusetts senators have moderately high scores: Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) ranks 36th of 100 senators, with 870 points. Kerry is 49th, with 715 points. Comparatively, Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) has the highest score in the Senate, with 1991 points.
In the 435-member House, Delahunt ranks 340th, with 62 points. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) has the highest score for House members, with 1,905 points.
The site has been so popular that it has been experiencing delays. Lee said he apologizes, and things should be moving quicker any day.
As a result of the site’s popularity, Lee said he’ll probably need more help and more money, possibly adding advertisements to the site. For now, the site’s creators are focused on one thing.
“We don’t want it to die,” Lee said. “We just want to keep it running.”
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