Representative Mike Capuano tops on the Hill in retaining staff, according to survey

By Bobby Caina Calvan, Globe Staff

Here’s a bragging right Bay State Representative Mike Capuano can crow about: He tops the list in the House of Representatives for staff retention, according to a first-of-its-kind survey out today.

The Somerville Democrat had the lowest turnover in staff over the past two years, according to a study produced by the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan Washington organization that promotes government transparency.

During those two years, Capuano kept 94 percent of his staff, the report said. On the other end, Representative Betty Sutton, a Democrat from Ohio, had the lowest retention rate at just 19 percent.

“Retention rates affect how well members of Congress can do their job, since they rely so much on their staff. And as any manager in the private sector knows, high turnover undermines organizational effectiveness,’’ said Lee Drutman, the study’s author, in a blog reporting her findings. “Hiring and training new staff takes substantial time, and institutional knowledge is frequently lost in the process.”

In general, Democrats held on to staff members slightly longer than than their GOP counterparts -- although Republicans held the next three top positions after Capuano.

It might not be very telling, considering that the survey only went back two years, and only offers a snapshot, Drutman conceded. Her study analyzed congressional changes between the third quarter of 2009 and the third quarter of 2011.

Among the Massachusetts House delegation, Representative John Tierney had the lowest staff retention rate, at 41 percent, followed by Representatives Edward Markey (50 percent), and Niki Tsongas (55 percent). The rest of the delegation had retention rates ranging from Barney Frank’s 73 percent to Jim McGovern’s 78 percent. Representative Bill Keating, who won his seat in the fall of 2010, was not included in the analysis.