In influence game, our guy is last

Feel like Newport Beach lost any political influence when John Campbell replaced Chris Cox in the House of Representatives?

The website www.congress.org has an answer for you. We lost tons.

The website’s “power rankings” ? which was put together by Knowlegis, a government-relations company ? has Campbell last in its list in the House. The list came out on Tuesday.

Of course, Campbell’s short tenure is to blame for that. It hasn’t given him much time to amass a record or score points in the three categories used as a basis for the ranking: position (“How much power could the legislator wield through his/her position in the Congress by virtue of tenure, committee assignments or leadership position?”); influence (“How much power did the legislator demonstrate to influence the congressional agenda or outcome of votes through the media, congressional caucuses, or money contributed to other members of Congress by his or her campaign committees or leadership PACs?”); and legislative activity (“How much power did the legislator demonstrate through the passage of legislation or shaping legislation through amendments?”).

Campbell scored a one on position and legislative activity and a zero on influence. The House’s top ranked member, Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), by comparison, scored 175 points for position, 20 for influence and zero for legislative activity. California’s highest ranking member of this list, Republican Jerry Lewis, had scores of 79, 12 and 30 in the three categories.

But we can track Campbell and see how he fares in future listings.

Perhaps more interesting is Rep. Dana Rohrabacher’s ranking: 218 out of 438. He got 26 points for position, one for influence and 3 for legislation.

It’s hard to imagine his stock going much higher.

For those interested, the rest of the Orange County House contingent ranked this way:

Ken Calvert was 12th in the state and 92nd in the House; Ed Royce was 14th and 128th; and Gary Miller was 16th and 148th.

Not a terribly influential group coming from “America’s most Republican county.”

And finally, the representative that Republicans here love to hate, Loretta Sanchez, ranked 36th and 337th. Maybe not as influential as you’d think, given all the flack she gets from Republicans.