Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Which Ohio Congresspersons likes their perks...

(This article is for the 14th Carnival of Ohio Politics, brought to you by Paul Miller of Northwest Ohio Net make sure you stop by so you can read what some of Ohio's best bloggers are focusing on)

With a curtsy to Cindy at Heights Mom in her morning round up I discovered this post at UAPA about how much it cost to lease Bob Ney's car. There was no link to the source, so I did a little searching and found Knight Ridder as one source of the information.

Last week some of you may remember I wrote a post about which Ohio Congressmen traveled the most and provided a link that showed who traveled where and who sponsored each trip.

So what happens when we add the cost of those yearly car expenses for the few that partake of this perk into the trip amount to discover their total ranking?

Still ranking as Ohio's number one:
John Boehner - R
Total number of trips - 39
Total cost of trips - $157,603.85
Average cost per trip - $4,041.12
Total number of days spent traveling - 169 days
Rank of representative - 7 (Out of 638)

Still number two:
Michael Oxley - R
Total number of trips - 12
Total cost of trips - $98,247.13
Average cost per trip - $8,187.26
Total number of days spent traveling - 69 days
Rank of representative - 37 (Out of 638)

When the the car lease is figured in, Stephanie pushes Sherrod out of third:
Stephanie Tubbs Jones, $5,923.20, D-Ohio, Chrysler 300
Total number of trips - 63
Total cost of trips - $83,143.84
Average cost per trip - $1,319.74
Total number of days spent traveling - 180 days
Rank of representative - 56 (Out of 638)
Total of Car and Trips: $89,067.04

Sherrod Brown - D now in fourth:
Total number of trips - 25
Total cost of trips - $86,497.95
Average cost per trip - $3,459.92
Total number of days spent traveling - 112 days
Rank of representative - 51 (Out of 638)

Hobson remains in 5th place:
David Hobson, $5,582.40, R-Ohio, Pontiac
Total number of trips - 9
Total cost of trips - $54,975.75
Average cost per trip - $6,108.42
Total number of days spent traveling - 46 days
Rank of representative - 113 (Out of 638)
Total of Car and Trips: $60,558.15

Ney pushes Sawyer out of 6th and Regula out of 7 for sixth:
Bob Ney, $12,988.52, R-Ohio, Lincoln
Total number of trips - 12
Total cost of trips - $50,295.36
Average cost per trip - $4,191.28
Total number of days spent traveling - 47 days
Rank of representative - 125 (Out of 638)
Total of Car and Trips: $63.283.88

Regula then remains in 7th but tops Sawyer:
Ralph Regula, $6,864.00, R-Ohio, vehicles not identified
Total number of trips - 11
Total cost of trips - $50,391.96
Average cost per trip - $4,581.09
Total number of days spent traveling - 50 days
Rank of representative - 123 (Out of 638)
Total of Car and Trips: $57,255.96

Thomas Sawyer moves to 8th:
Total number of trips - 12
Total cost of trips - $52,286.35
Average cost per trip - $4,357.20
Total number of days spent traveling - 51 days
Rank of representative - 119 (Out of 638)

LaTourette moves from 19th to 16th place:
Steve LaTourette, $8,178.84, R-Ohio, Lincoln LS
Total number of trips - 3
Total cost of trips - $4,423.85
Average cost per trip - $1,474.62
Total number of days spent traveling - 12 days
Rank of representative - 509 (Out of 638)
Total of Car and Trips: $9,652.84

Ohio taxpayers spent $39,196.16 for car related expenses for these Congresspersons. Those listed here spent 736 days traveling since 2000. A grand total of 1084 days were spent in total by Ohio Congresspersons, with an additional 42 by both of it's Senators. Which means, since 2000 there has been an Ohioan absent daily for an equivalent of over three years. Stephanie Tubbs takes the prize for the most days with 180, followed by John Boehner and then Sherrod Brown.

If the car expenses remained similar since they are only listed here for 2005 and those who did not lease in 2005 did not have these expenses in any previous year Ney would be in first place and Tubbs would move into third place.

11 comments:

historymike said...

Keep their collective toes to the fire, Lisa. Nice work.

Unknown said...

It's good to know that they are spending all that time in Washington passing legeslation like they are supposed to. I think the days spent traveling makes me angrier than the money spent on rentals. It seems like these guys spend more and more time working on their campaigns and not working on laws.

Unknown said...

I think it's best to point them all out rather than to just pick one side or the other. Or one person for that matter. When you place it all in context sometimes it seems different.

There is also a very good chance if five years of car expenses were added into that total many of the ranking spots would change.

I also agree with you Drew that the number of days spent traveling was a surprise. If you go to that link and check out where some of these trips were and who sponsored them it really makes you stop and think.

Look at Mike Dewine's travel figures as another example of something that has puzzled me. Three of the trips were sponsored by the same group and all four of his trips were within Ohio. Why it cost that much to get him from Washington to parts of really makes me wonder. Checking with expedia the average cost of a non-stop round trip flight from Washington DC to Cleveland is under $300.00.

Unknown said...

It also really made me wonder how many days total have been lost if we added up all of the House and Senate members for the whole Country. That would take hours to compile though with the way they have the information so I haven't done that.

Unknown said...

Incase anyone is curious about the numbers when it comes to trips and party division:

Democratic Party
Number of trips for party members: 3674
Total spent on party members: $10,471,578.35
Percentage of total spent on party: 54.0%

Independent Party
Number of trips for party members: 95
Total spent on party members: $178,281.50
Percentage of total spent on party: 0.9%

Republican Party
Number of trips for party members: 2802
Total spent on party members: $8,759,848.27
Percentage of total spent on party: 45.1%

Mark said...

So much for the assumption that Republicans are bought more than Democrats.

Unknown said...

Also makes it clear why nothing has been done about these kinds of trips. Not to mention the various ethics rules that are broken during these trips that don't seem to be addressed the majority of the time.

Mark said...

Why would they want to give up their perks? It's not like Americans are forcing the issue...yet.

DBK said...

Bob "Representative Number One" Ney doesn't travel so much on the taxpayer dime because he has pet lobbyists to pay for it.

Sorry. That was an excellent, well-prepared posting. I just thought I would bring you a little snark.

Unknown said...

You know I love snark, and it's a good thing he doesn't travel that much, if his car expenses are similar for the past four years? He'd be in the number one spot from that alone.

:-)

Hooda Thunkit (Dave Zawodny) said...

Does anybody still believe that they are working for us?

They migh as well all wear sponsor logos on their back ends, like race cars...

Then, at least, they would comply with the truth in packaging laws (that they are already probably exempt from)...