Nevada Congress members rank highly

Benjamin Grove

Friday, Nov. 3, 2000 | 11:16 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Nevada's four-member delegation in Congress is the eighth most powerful when adjusted for state size, according to a ranking by a fledgling Virginia-based political website.

The power ranking done by yourcongress.com relied heavily on a formula that combines the relative power of a member's committee assignments, whether the member was a committee or subcommittee chairman and whether the member held elected leadership positions. The website polled current and former senior staffers in the House and Senate to establish a list of most powerful committees (the money committees -- Ways and Means and Appropriations -- were most powerful).

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who holds a seat on the Appropriations Committee, is the ranking Democrat on the committee's Energy and Water subcommittee and is the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate as minority whip, ranked No. 23 of 100 senators.

In a profile of Reid, the website fails to mention that Reid is minority whip.

"I don't give the site a lot of credibility," Reid spokesman Mark Schuermann said. "If they are trying to establish themselves as an authoritative source, they should get their facts straight."

Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., was No. 34 in the Senate; Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., in his second term, was No. 96 of 435 House members; freshman Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., was No. 266 in the House.

Berkley and Gibbons, if they win reelection, likely would move up next year depending on which party controls the House. Members can sometimes jockey for more powerful committees or chairmanships if their party has control.

"I am 398 in seniority -- to have a 266 ranking, now that's power," Berkley said, laughing. "I'm ranked above many sophomore and junior members. Wait until next year when I have a coveted seat on the Ways and Means Committee."

Gibbons has been effective at pushing a number of Nevada-related bills through Congress -- a mark of power, spokesman Robert Uithoven said.

"Clearly, we are happy with what this study indicates for our entire delegation," Uithoven said. "As we have always said, Nevada is in a unique position in that we play as much defense as we do offense in terms of legislation that affects the gaming and mining industries as well as the nuclear waste issue."

Bryan is retiring from the Senate. The "power" of his replacement -- Democrat Ed Bernstein or Republican John Ensign -- also would be determined in part by the party that emerges with majority control after Election Day.

The website acknowledges the survey ignores intangibles such as a Congress member's eloquence, ability to sway other members, history for distributing favors, or how much respect the member carries.

Alaska, Montana, Idaho, South Dakota and Delaware were the most powerful states when adjusted for size. The most powerful states in terms of raw power were generally the largest states in population: California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois.

More information about the power ranking is available at yourcongress.com. Click on "Election Resource Center." Yourcongress.com was launched in March 2000 and takes an often irreverent look at politics on Capitol Hill.