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WASHINGTON - It's a rough life when your congressional delegation can get bullied by Delaware's, or have sand kicked in its face by Vermont's. And what do you do when Wyoming takes your congressman's lunch money?

It's not easy for weaklings of Washington, but it's the life of the Utah delegation, according to a new ranking of clout in the 110th Congress by Roll Call, a newspaper that covers Congress.

The state finished 47th overall in the ratings, a showing that results from the delegation's small size and its Republican-dominated makeup in the new Democratic Congress.

"It definitely hurts to get kicked around by South Dakota and Maine," said Kirk Jowers, director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah. "When the Democrats take over and we are such a Republican state and our most senior leaders are Republican, it's going to hurt our standings."

Indeed, "clout" was a word prominently featured on Sen. Orrin Hatch's billboards in his last campaign, but it appears to be in short supply among the Utah members.

Hatch dismisses the rankings as "a parlor game."

"It shouldn't be a mystery that a very Republican-dominated delegation would lose clout after the last election," Hatch said. "Plus, the large states always come out on top in these things. The raw power gauge is who controls the agenda - and that's Democrats, not Republicans."

But, Hatch noted, he will be back on four influential committees, Sen. Bob Bennett is advising Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Rep. Chris Cannon is gaining seniority on the Judiciary Committee and Rep. Rob Bishop is back on Armed Services. Even Democrat Jim Matheson's spot on the House Energy and Commerce Committee bodes well.

"So any effort to put a number with a state's power ranking is clearly just a parlor game," he says.

Roll Call based its rankings on the size of a state's delegation, committee chairmanships, members on influential committees, top leadership posts, the number of members in the majority party, per capita federal spending and seniority.

In the past decade, Utah's clout peaked at the beginning of the 107th Congress - with Hatch leading the Senate Judiciary Committee and Rep. Jim Hansen in his last term in charge of the House Resources Committee.

But it has slipped since, and took a gut-kick when Democrats took over this year and the four Republicans, including Hatch and Sen. Bob Bennett, who were prepping for prime committee chairmanships after 2008, suddenly became the loyal opposition.

California was again first, holding on to its top spot with a boost as the home state to new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It was followed by New York, Texas, Michigan and Florida.

States' influence

in Congress TOP 5

* 1. California

* 2. New York

* 3. Texas

* 4. Michigan

* 5. Florida

BOTTOM 5

* 46. Nevada

* 47. UTAH

* 48. Idaho

* 49. New Hampshire

* 50. Nebraska

Source: Roll Call