Does Serving as a Representative Make One a Better Senator?

During his appearance on Jim Braude’s NECN show BroadSide, Capuano said something about experience that piqued my curiosity — and that turned out to be bogus. 

Do they want somebody who has the experience in Congress, that knows how it works and knows how to get things done, so that they can do something other than just talk about philosophical values, actually make some accomplishments?

Decent question.  Does serving as a representative first make one a better senator?  I had no idea, so I looked into it. 

A few years ago, Time magazine published their research on America’s 10 Best Senators of the 109th Congress.  I checked out the Senators’ backgrounds.  Of the 10 best, five were previously reps.  The other five held the following jobs at the time of their election to the senate: state tax commissioner, city council president, mayor, private-practice attorney and assistant DA (Teddy Kennedy).

So that research yielded no indication that being a rep is a pre-qualifier for being an excellent senator, but does it at least keep one from being a lousy senator?  Well, Time also named the Five Worst Senators, and of those five, three previously were reps.   So nope, being a rep won’t keep you out of the senate dregs.

For a longer-term perspective, I checked out who the Senate itself has chosen as the seven all-time greatest.  All were chosen by state legislatures back before the public got to vote on senators, so things were quite different.  Resumes ranged from VP to farmer to newspaper editor.  But how many former reps made the top seven list?  Three. 

I found no evidence that those who have served as representatives make better or worse senators than anyone else.  Capuano’s logic seems bogus.

For the history geeks, here are the lists:

Time’s 10 Greatest:

• Thad Cochran, R-MS, U.S. Rep
• Kent Conrad, D/Non-Partisan League-ND, state tax commissioner
• Dick Durbin, D-IL, US Rep
• Ted Kennedy, D-MA, assistant DA
• Jon Kyl, R-AZ, US Rep
• Carl Levin, D-MI, city council president
• Richard Lugar, R-IN, mayor
• John McCain, R-AZ, US rep
• Olympia Snowe, R-ME, US rep
• Arlen Specter, D-PA, attorney in private practice

Time’s 5 Worst:

• Daniel Akaka, D-HI, US Rep
• Wayne Allard, R-CO, US Rep
• Jim Bunning, R-KY, US Rep
• Conrad Burns, R-MT, county commissioner
• Mark Dayton, D/FarmerLaborParty-MN, state auditor

Senate’s All-Time Greatest:

• John Calhoun, Democratic Republican-SC, US Vice President
• Henry Clay, Democratic-Republican and Whig – KY, State Assemblyman (was a US Rep after senate)
• Robert LaFollette, R-WI, Governor (previously US Rep)
• Robert Taft, R-OH, attorney and farmer (previously US Rep)
• Arthur Vandenberg, R-MI, newspaper editor
• Robert Wagner, D-NY, state supreme court
• Daniel Webster, Whig-MA, US Rep