Sununu Challenges Low Power Ranking
RANKING
Union Leader
Matt Negrin
Boston University Washington News Service
5 March 2008
WASHINGTON — In April 2006, Time magazine named John Sununu one of five “up and comer” freshman senators, citing his opposition to the reauthorization of the Bush administration’s Patriot Act and his support of budget cuts to balance spending for Hurricane Katrina. Earlier this year, he was awarded a spot on the influential Finance Committee, beating out senior senators and earning a strong voice on tax and trade policies.
Yet a new “power ranking” of senators puts the first-term Republican at 89th out of 100 for the last year, citing a quiet legislative record and “too few” terms in office to have a sturdy presence.
It isn’t the lowest Sununu has been ranked in the annual analysis by Knowlegis, a nonpartisan software data and lobbying group. Sununu held the 93rd spot in 2007, when Democrats took over the Senate — a big drop from 67th in 2005 and 74th in 2006.
It’s very difficult for members in the minority party to be graded well on the power they hold, so they “consistently don’t do well in power rankings,” said Brad Fitch, the Knowlegis CEO.
The criteria for the list are committee posts and leadership spots, “indirect influence” of an agenda or votes, bills or amendments proposed and earmarks secured for the home state.
Noting that Democrats hold eight of the top 10 slots in this year’s rankings, Sununu’s communications director, Barbara Riley, called the scoring “slanted.”
“There is a 51-49 split between the parties in the Senate, which provides Republican senators with tremendous power and opportunity for achievement,” she said in a statement. “The Internet Access Tax Ban, which Senator Sununu guided to passage, is a perfect example.” That law prevented electronic messages from being taxed.
Sununu, the youngest senator at 43, sits on three Senate committees: Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; and Finance, an influential committee of which he is the newest addition.
“To suggest that anyone who sits on the Finance Committee is in the bottom 50 would suggest that the people who put together this list are not as familiar with the workings of Capitol Hill as they should be,” said Bob Stevenson, a longtime press aide for former New Hampshire GOP Sen. Warren Rudman.
Rudman, a two-term senator first elected in 1980, said it wasn’t until his second term that he had confidence in getting support for major legislation. Sununu is nearing the end of his first term.
“It’s a heck of a lot harder when you’re in the minority than when you’re in the majority,” Rudman said.
In 2007, Sununu sponsored two resolutions, 11 bills and 21 amendments. The two resolutions cleared without debate, but the Senate approved only two of the bills — both of them renaming New Hampshire post offices. Seven of his amendments have been adopted.
The Knowlegis report notes that Sununu successfully fought for $71.3 million in 36 earmarks — funding for local projects. The most powerful senator, according to the list, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., brought in $305.2 million in 177 earmarks.
“I look at each request on its merits and whether there is a fit with the federal program and available resources, whether there is strong local support and whether the funds will have a strong impact on New Hampshire families and the economy,” Sununu said in a statement.
“You detail somebody’s effectiveness by their performance in how they represent their constituencies, and certainly John Sununu has been an outstanding legislator and representative for New Hampshire,” Stevenson said.
Stevenson touted Sununu’s “independent” voting record, citing his votes against the Bush administration in 2004 and 2006 on a constitutional amendment which would have banned gay marriage and in 2007 on funding of a children’s health insurance program popular in New Hampshire. Sununu also urged Bush last year to fire Alberto Gonzales, the embattled then-attorney general caught up in allegations about whether U.S. attorneys were fired for partisan reasons.
The Sununus are no strangers to power. Sununu, a three-term U.S. House member before being elected to the Senate in 2002, is the son of John H. Sununu, a former New Hampshire governor and President George H.W. Bush’s first chief of staff. Sen. Sununu has never lost an election, but he is facing one of the tightest reelection campaigns in the country in a November rematch against former Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen.
Bill Lofy, director of the Stop Sununu campaign, which is funded by the New Hampshire Democratic Party, assailed the senator for not acting in the state’s best interests and said the power rankings “confirm what New Hampshire voters already know: John E. Sununu has wasted the past six years he’s been in the Senate.”
The Granite State’s other Republican senator, Judd Gregg, ranked 53rd, a boost from last year’s 63rd but well below his 28th placement in 2006. Gregg is the senior Republican on the Budget Committee and brought home $91.6 million in 63 earmarks last year.
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