Congressman Cicilline’s Caucus Has Not Met in Years
Sunday, January 10, 2016
A GoLocal review finds that Congressman David Cicilline’s “Common Ground Caucus” has not met in years, now has no members, and yet Chairman Cicilline continues to promote his leadership of the group in communications and on his official Congressional website.
Repeated calls and emails to the Congressman’s spokesman Rich Luchette asking about the status of the Caucus have been gone unanswered for weeks.
The review by GoLocal was sparked when the Lugar Center at Georgetown University released a comprehensive analysis of the voting records of each member of Congress and Cicilline was reported to be among the most partisan in the House of Representatives. Efforts to reach Cicilline and his press office to explain the inconsistencies between leading a Caucus intended to create bi-partisanship and recording a voting record that was ranked among the most partisan were ignored.
GoLocal contacted the Washington, D.C. offices of all of the most recently listed 18 members of the “Common Ground Caucus” and found that there was confusion among the members of Congress as to if they were still a member, when the caucus had last met, and if it was still recognized as a Caucus by Congress. All committees and caucus are recorded and qualified by the House Committee on Administration.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST"The smaller caucuses seem to be more about PR and suggest there's a measure of unity that holds common interests, but that's about it," said veteran political pollster Vic Profughi. "I think that it can let them go into never-never land, I don't think many people pay attention if they come and go. I'm curious to what Cicilline has to say about having it listed if it doesn't meet."
Read below: Steve Peoples' column from 2011 on Cicilline creating the caucus. Peoples covered Washington for GoLocal. Today, he covers the Presidential campaign for the Associated Press.
For Cicilline, who often criticizes members of the Republican party in the House, he has used his leadership role in the Caucus as an indicator of his efforts to form bipartisan solutions. According to the Lugar Center at Georgetown University, Cicilline is among the most partisan members of the House.
Caucus Membership Status
In phone calls to each office, seventeen of the eighteen responded to questions about the Caucus — the only office not responding was Congressman Cicilline’s office. Of the 17 members who responded 3 thought the caucus was still active. According to the House Committee on Administration, the Caucus has not been recognized in 18 months. Beyond Cicilline listing the Caucus and his chairmanship, two other members also list the membership in the Caucus. Members of Congress as practice do not list previous Committee or Caucus appointments as to not to confuse constituents.
Cicilline list the following caucus memberships:
- Common Ground Caucus, Founder and Co-Chair
- Congressional Progressive Caucus
- Congressional Buy American Caucus
- House Manufacturing Caucus
- Congressional Creative Rights Caucus
- LGBT Equality Caucus
According to the House Committee of Administration’s tracking of all House committee’s and caucuses, Chairman Cicilline’s staff point person was Brad Greenburg. He has not worked for the Cicilline in 18-months and is presently a law school student at New York University.
Efforts to reach him were unsuccessful.
When Cicilline created the Caucus, he said, “Rhode Islanders, and Americans across the country expect action by Congress and the only way that can happen is by working together,” said Cicilline. “By working with colleagues from across the aisle, we can create a more bipartisan institution that allows us to get more done for those we represent and to be more effective in solving the great challenges of our time. We may have very different views, but still must find a way to work together for the sake of our country. The Common Ground Caucus is a place to cultivate relationships off the floor and out of the committee room.”
Even as late as January 9th, 2015 Cicilline was trumpeting his bi-partisan efforts.
In an email to constituents in Rhode Island he wrote, “By working together I believe we can find common ground to make this Congress more productive than the last, accomplish the work we were sent here to do, and create a brighter future for the people we serve.”
The review was sparked when the Lugar Center released its rankings, and Cicilline was reported to be among the most partisan in the House of Representatives. Efforts to reach Cicilline and his press office to explain the inconsistencies between leading a Caucus intended to create bi-partisanship and recording a voting record that was ranked among the most partisan were ignored.
"It's either very sloppy updating, or stressing his 'bipartisanship' in a matter that's convenient, if it hasn't actually done anything," said Kay Israel, Associate Professor of Communications at Rhode Island College. "Unless they have regular meetings, it could just be a title."
Lugar Center at Georgetown Index
As GoLocal reported on December 17, 2015:
In 2011, Rhode Island’s newly-elected Congressman David Cicilline announced that he and NY Republican Congresswoman Nan Hayworth would create a bi-partisan caucus in the House. When it was founded Cicilline said,
“By working with colleagues from across the aisle, we can create a more bipartisan institution that allows us to get more done for those we represent and to be more effective in solving the great challenges of our time. We may have very different views, but still must find a way to work together for the sake of our country. The Common Ground Caucus is a place to cultivate relationships off the floor and out of the committee room.”
Since the founding of the group, Cicilline has shifted his approach and is now one of the most partisan members of the House of Representatives, according to a recent study. Cicilline is ranked 362 out of 435 in the House for willingness to work in a bipartisan manner (putting him in the bottom 17% of the highly fractionalized House). This ranking was developed by the Lugar Center at Georgetown University.
Hayworth lost her re-election bid in 2012 to a former Bill Clinton White House Staffer, Sean Patrick Maloney.
US Congressman Jim Langevin (D-2)
Congressman Jim Langevin ranks 290th.
The Lugar Center at Georgetown University was named after former Indiana Senator Dick Lugar. He formerly served in the Senate a Republican who was known for his work in building consensus on tough foreign policy and economic issues.
The Bipartisan Index is intended to fill a hole in the information available to the public about the performance of Members of Congress. There are innumerable studies, rankings, and indexes that grade members according to a partisan, parochial, or special-interest standard.
Steve Peoples: Cicilline Forms Special Bipartisan Caucus
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Steve Peoples, GoLocalProv Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON—David Cicilline may be struggling to find friendly faces back in Rhode Island, but the freshman Congressman hopes to have as many as 40 or 50 new friends in Washington, D.C. by the end of the month.
Cicilline will distribute a letter in the coming days to all members of Congress inviting them to join the Common Ground Caucus, a new group with some quirky rules that the Ocean State Democrat hopes will soften the bitter partisanship that often consumes the hallways of Congress.
“I don’t expect that everyone will join. It would probably be best if it starts out with 40 or 50 members so that when we do things it will be manageable,” Cicilline told GoLocalProv. “I think that if we don’t intentionally create opportunities to build relationships, it’s not going to happen on its own.”
While most caucuses—there are dozens of loosely organized groups of elected officials ranging from the Congressional Wine Caucus to the Congressional Caucus on Lumber—hold meetings somewhere on Capitol Hill, this one was designed specifically to do things a little differently.
First, to join the Common Ground Caucus, members have to bring someone from the opposite party. And second, the meetings aren’t really meetings at all. Cicilline prefers to call them “activities.” He’s planning dinners, Washington Nationals baseball games, or even bowling.
Teaming up with Tea Party Republican
Cicilline has already found a Republican to help launch the effort.
His co-chair will be New York Congresswoman Nan Hayworth, who rode the Tea Party wave to her first term in Congress last fall, and in some ways, couldn’t differ more ideologically from Cicilline, an openly gay progressive.
“That’s exactly the point,” Cicilline said. “If I found a Republican who agreed with me on most of the issues, it likely wouldn’t convince many members of the Republican caucus to join me. We can have very different views...but still find a way to work together for the country we love.”
The unlikely political partners worked together to author the invitation letter.
“While we are both new to office here in Washington, we have heard a consistent message from our constituents that nearly every member of this body has also encountered at some point in their career,” they wrote, according to a draft obtained by GoLocalProv. “The men and women we serve do not just want their government to work, and work well, they also expect their representatives to be willing and able to work across the aisle.”
The two sat next to each during President Obama’s most recent State of the Union address and have been friends ever since.
“I’m honored to be invited by David, my good friend from the Democratic Caucus, to be a co-founder of the Common Ground Caucus,” Hayworth told GoLocalProv. “This is an opportunity for us to get to know each other outside of the rigors of legislating.”
Could it help Cicilline with independents?
It’s unclear what impact the move with have on Cicilline’s political career, which appeared to hit a new low late last month.
Just 17 percent of Rhode Islanders told Brown University pollsters that Cicilline is doing an “excellent” or “good” job in a survey released March 24. And while many members of Congress have suffered from low approval ratings recently, perhaps more troubling was public opinion relative to Providence’s financial problems. Nearly 80 percent of respondents said that Cicilline, the former Providence mayor, deserves significant responsibility for the city’s massive budget shortfalls.
There is plenty of time for Cicilline to recover, however, especially as he works on projects that appeal to independent voters, according to Darrell West, a former Brown University pollster, who now serves as the vice president of governance at the Brookings Institution, a left-leaning think tank based in Washington, D.C.
“If Cicilline can persuade independents he is doing good work in DC through a bipartisan caucus or policy actions, that would help him in 2012,” West said. “Winning independents is key for Cicilline’s political future. They constitute about half of the Rhode Island electorate and determine who wins and loses.”
West continued: “Finding common ground is a winner with political independents. They are the voters most likely to want the parties to work together and address real problems. They don’t like political polarization and see it hurting the country.”
But not all of Cicilline’s activities on Capitol Hill are geared to bi-partisanship. He is a member of the Progressive Caucus, the Out of Afghanistan Caucus, and serves as co-chairman of the Equality Caucus.
Meanwhile, he expects the first meeting of the Common Ground Caucus to be held by early May at the latest. His office will work with Hayworth’s to coordinate the activities.
“I don’t know whether it helps or hurts politically,” he said when asked about his political problems. “But it’s the right thing to do.”
Steve Peoples is a former Providence Journal political reporter who covers national politics for Roll Call. As the GoLocalProv Washington Correspondent, he will provide periodic coverage of Rhode Island affairs from Washington, D.C.
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