GOP Rep. Nick LaLota of New York is the highest-rated member of Congress to work for, while Democratic Rep. Don Davis of North Carolina is the worst, according to a new platform for congressional staffers.
Capitol CNCT’s The Scoop is a confidential transparency and accountability platform for Capitol Hill. It functions like a “Glassdoor” or “Rate My Professor” for Congress, allowing current and former congressional staffers to anonymously rate and review the member offices where they have worked.
David Tennent, the founder of Capitol CNCT, a networking app for congressional staffers, said this may “ruffle a few feathers on the Hill.”
Mr. Tennent, who worked in the House for three years, said the idea was “born out of a frustration I had on the Hill,” leading him to create a way for current and former staffers to confidentially review their congressional offices.
“I wanted to create something that provided transparency and accountability for bosses on the Hill while also making it easier to find a good job. I believe the best-rated offices deserve the best candidates. We should reward offices and members with great culture,” he told The Washington Times.
The new platform offers confidential, verified reviews by Hill staffers. Every anonymous review is human-verified to ensure the reviewer worked in the office.
It offers eight rating categories: member rating, office leadership, office culture, work-life balance, pay, clear path to promotion, whether work was appreciated and whether work was rewarding.
Of the 535 members of Congress, 90 have been reviewed on the new service: 65 representatives and 25 senators.
The member rating average is 8.48 out of 10, the highest of all categories, as staffers tend to rate the person more generously than the office. A clear path to promotion is consistently the weakest category across almost every group, with an average of 7.02.
Comparing each chamber offered a stark contrast; the Senate held an overall average score of 8.45, compared to 7.31 in the House.
Mr. LaLota and Mr. Davis hold the highest and lowest scores, respectively, out of all 90 congressional offices reviewed — not just in the House.
In the other chamber, GOP Sens. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Todd Young of Indiana both come with a 100% recommendation rate. Ms. Lummis has an overall score of 10 with one review, while Mr. Young’s overall score sits at 9.9 with two reviews.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, Michigan Democrat, is the lowest-rated senator, with an overall score of 1.8. With one review so far, all eight of her categories were given a 1, except pay, which was rated a 7.
Republicans and Democrats also vastly differed in scores, with GOP members holding an 8.20 average score, compared with 6.39 among Democrats.
Republican lawmakers have also been reviewed twice as much as Democrats.
In just one week, the platform has more than 150 reviews. More than 1,000 congressional staffers — about 10% of the total— have logged onto the platform in the past two days, Mr. Tennent said.
He has heard that some members of Congress are “nervous” about The Scoop.
Some lawmakers, such as Mr. Davis, have multiple reviews. He holds the single lowest score in the dataset, with scores ranging from 1.3 to 3.4 out of 10.
His rating is credited to a “toxic work environment,” “terrible management” and “incredibly poor chain of command,” pointing the finger at his chief of staff.
“It was the most toxic work environment I have ever experienced and will ever experience,” one review reads. “The Chief didn’t do any work and would try to pit the member against the staff. Don Davis doesn’t sleep so we were expected to work until 2 am and wake up at 7 am the following day for 7 days a week. We were only given a day off if we used a sick day.”
The Washington Times reached out to Mr. Davis’ office for comment.
Mr. Tennent said that, so far, “staffers are loving it.”
At a Monday event, the response was relief, he said. Although some did express concern about posting due to fear of retribution.
“I hope with time, staffers will see we are properly protecting their identity so that they can freely share this valuable info that holds bad bosses accountable,” he said.
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