Composite 7.17 / 10, weighted per the Constitutional Weight Schedule.
✓ Clears the 700 bar, Author's Verdict: supported.
Clears the 700 support line at credit 716 (Sound band) with no severity flag, Author's Verdict: supported on the documented conduct.
No military service on record. Pre-Congress career: attorney (adoption and public-policy law) and advocate in New Hampshire. Service to country here is civilian; character is scored as conduct in the measures, not credited as a badge.
The 14 measures
Each measure is scored 0–10 against an anchored example, with a cited source. Hover/expand why? for the reasoning.
| # | Measure | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| M01 | Duty to Constitution & Rule of Law | 7 | why?No documented conduct subverting a constitutional process. As a Democrat she could not and did not sign the Texas v. Pennsylvania amicus (GOP-only, 126 House signatories) and is not on the signatory list; no crit-8 conduct. Affirmative institutional-fidelity is real but measured, founding cross-aisle task forces and chairing a governing-minded coalition, without a singular constitutional-stand-at-cost moment that would push toward the apex. Upper-middle. [source] |
| M02 | Party Over Country | 8 | why?Among the strongest measures on the record. Founded the Bipartisan Heroin/Opioid Task Force (grew to 85-100+ members of both parties) and co-founded the Bipartisan Task Force to End Sexual Violence; consistently recruited Republican co-chairs and co-sponsors. Sustained, structural cross-aisle work placing problem-solving over denying the other side a win. [source] |
| M03 | Persons of Equal Worth | 7 | why?No documented anti-belonging pattern toward opponents or constituents. Worked across the aisle by design and framed adversaries as partners on shared problems. No documented slurs or dehumanizing rhetoric. Solid upper-middle; held below apex absent a documented high-mark defense of an opponent's personhood before her own side. [source] |
| M04 | Weaponization of Justice | 8 | why?No documented weaponization of state power against rivals; no criterion-class conduct. The record is the inverse posture, coalition-building and survivor-protection legislation rather than retaliatory use of office. [source] |
| M05 | Incitement / Anti-Belonging | 7 | why?Career-long rhetorical restraint with no documented enemy-making instances. Public remarks center policy and survivor advocacy rather than personal attack. Upper-middle; no documented high or low extreme. [source] |
| M06 | Fiduciary Conduct | 7 | why?No documented ethics findings, sanctions, or sustained appearance-concerns across 12 years. Standard sponsored-travel and financial disclosures on file with no flagged irregularity. Clean fiduciary record; held at upper-middle absent an affirmative, sustained self-accountability anchor. [source] |
| M07 | Duty to Call Out | 6 | why?The active-duty bar is calling out one's OWN side at cost. Her 2016 floor disclosure of her own assaults, breaking ~40 years of silence to advance accountability legislation, is genuine moral courage at personal cost, though aimed at a societal failure rather than squarely at her own party. Limited documentation of intra-party challenge. Middle, leaning up for the personal-cost courage. [source] |
| M08 | The Discretion Test | 6 | why?No documented discretion-test failures (no abuse of perks, earmarks-for-self, or special-treatment scandals). No singular documented sacrifice-of-advantage anchor either. Clean middle. [source] |
| M09 | The No-Camera Test | 7 | why?No documented private/public contempt gap; bipartisan colleagues across both parties praised her on departure, consistent with her on-record collaborative posture. No evidence of a hidden persona. [source] |
| M10 | Constituent-vs-Donor Vote | 7 | why?Documented district-facing work (opioid response, veterans, sexual-violence prevention) aligned with NH-02 constituent concerns; no documented donor-capture overriding constituent interest. Upper-middle. [source] |
| M11 | Net-Worth Trajectory | 8 | why?Scores ONLY office-attributable enrichment. No documented self-dealing, family payments, office-information trades, or foreign-government revenue. Personal/family wealth (pre-office, attorney career) is NOT penalized. No documented office-driven enrichment; clean. [source] |
| M12 | Floor Decorum | 7 | why?Sustained institutional decorum across 12 years; chaired the New Democrat Coalition with a regular-order, governing orientation. No documented decorum breaches. Honors the institution over spectacle. [source] |
| M13 | Lying & Misleading | 7 | why?No sustained documented-falsehood pattern. Public statements track verifiable policy positions; no fact-check pattern of fabrication on record. Upper-middle. [source] |
| M14 | Knowledge Depth | 7 | why?Demonstrated substantive command on addiction/mental-health and sexual-violence policy, shepherded task-force legislation through the Energy & Commerce Committee. Substance over talking points; held below apex absent a marquee, field-defining legislative architecture. [source] |
Why not higher, the points withheld
The standard is the seat; the ceiling is a perfect 10. Every withheld point traces to documented conduct, weighed where the measures and attributes say it belongs, shown openly here, the same way the earned points are.
| Where | Documented conduct | Mitigation weighed |
|---|---|---|
| M01 | No singular constitutional-stand-at-personal-cost anchor; institutional fidelity expressed through coalition-building rather than a marquee oath-defense moment ↳ Oath-fidelity ceiling without an apex anchor | No subversion conduct whatsoever; affirmative cross-aisle institutional work is real |
| M07 | Limited documented record of challenging her OWN party at cost; her courage moment (the 2016 survivor disclosure) targeted a societal failure more than her own side ↳ Active call-out duty partly unmet | The personal-cost courage of breaking ~40 years of silence to drive legislation is genuine |
| M08 | No documented sacrifice-of-advantage anchor ↳ Discretion test neutral, clean but unproven at the high end | - |
| M14 | Strong issue command but no field-defining legislative architecture at the marquee tier ↳ Substance ceiling | Real committee-level legislative throughput on addiction and sexual-violence policy |
The Four Pillars, worthy to be followed?
A separate axis from the 14 measures. The measures ask did their conduct meet the standard; the Pillars ask is this someone worthy to be elevated and followed at all. The two can diverge, when they do, the divergence is the finding.
| # | Pillar | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | Trust & Loyalty
| 7 | why?Attributes: Steadiness, Selfless Service, Loyalty to institution over faction. The sustained cross-aisle task-force building and the personal-cost survivor disclosure evidence Courage and Selfless Service. Held at 7 by the absence of a singular sacrifice-everything anchor; no drag toward Self-Interest or Collapse on the record. |
| II | Aspiration & Integrity
| 7 | why?Attributes: Conviction, Authenticity, Self-Reflection. Going public with her own assault history to advance accountability legislation is authentic conviction at cost. No documented integrity drag; held at 7 for a measured rather than extraordinary record. |
| III | Protection & Influence
| 7 | why?Attributes: Protection, Stewardship, Accountability. Used office to protect survivors and respond to the opioid crisis; no documented Exploitation. Clean fiduciary and constituent record. Held at 7 absent a marquee protection-of-power-against-power moment. |
| IV | Legacy & Virtue
| 7 | why?Attributes: Integrity, Justice, Love of Truth. A durable bipartisan-problem-solving legacy with no scandal asterisk. Held at 7, solid and clean rather than singular. |
| TOTAL: Moderate | 28/40 |
Total 28/40, Strong-Adequate. A clean, collaborative, scandal-free record whose pillars sit in the upper-middle: real courage and cross-aisle stewardship, without an extraordinary apex anchor.
What the Four Pillars are & the questions behind each →
In their own words
“I have decided not to seek re-election... I'm trying to set a better example, that we don't have to stay forever.”
Retirement announcement and subsequent exit interviews · Boston Globe / Roll Call exit interview · CIVIC · cite
“I kept silent for nearly 40 years. I am sharing my story now because survivors deserve to be believed.”
House floor speech disclosing her own experiences of sexual assault, amid debate over survivor accountability · Roll Call / Concord Monitor coverage · PRINCIPLED · cite
“This has to be bipartisan, the opioid epidemic doesn't check your party registration.”
On founding the Bipartisan Heroin/Opioid Task Force · House office; task-force founding coverage · CIVIC · cite
Full personnel file
1. Identity
Ann L. McLane "Annie" Kuster (born September 5, 1956). U.S. Representative for New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district, 2013-2025 (six terms). Democrat. Before Congress, an attorney specializing in adoption and public-policy law and a New Hampshire advocate. Chair of the New Democrat Coalition; founder of the Bipartisan Heroin/Opioid (later Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder) Task Force and co-founder of the Bipartisan Task Force to End Sexual Violence. Served on the House Energy & Commerce Committee. Announced retirement March 2024; term ended January 2025.
2. Voting / Legislative Profile
Six-term House Democrat (NH-02), DW-NOMINATE center-left. Signature work is cross-aisle and structural: founded the Bipartisan Heroin/Opioid Task Force in 2015 (grew to 85-100+ members of both parties, with rotating Republican co-chairs) and the Bipartisan Task Force to End Sexual Violence; shepherded addiction and mental-health legislation through the Energy & Commerce Committee. Chaired the New Democrat Coalition, a governing-minded bloc. Lugar/McCourt Bipartisan Index reflects an above-median cross-aisle posture. Policy positions are NOT scored here in either direction.
3. Constitutional Moments
No documented constitutional-subversion conduct. As a Democrat she was not eligible to and did not sign the Texas v. Pennsylvania amicus (Republican-only, 126 House signatories); she is not on the signatory list. The closest oath-fidelity conduct on the record is institutional rather than crisis-defined: building durable bipartisan structures and chairing a coalition oriented toward governance over obstruction.
4. Rhetoric & Discourse Profile
Career-long rhetorical restraint with no documented enemy-making or dehumanizing pattern. Her highest-profile rhetorical moment is the 2016 floor disclosure of her own sexual-assault history, a vulnerability deployed to advance accountability legislation rather than to attack. Public remarks center policy and survivor advocacy. No documented slurs, incitement, or sustained personal-attack pattern.
5. Fiduciary Profile
No documented ethics findings, sanctions, or sustained appearance-concerns across 12 years. Standard financial and sponsored-travel disclosures on file with no flagged irregularity. No documented office-attributable enrichment, no self-dealing, family payments, office-information trades, or foreign-government revenue. Pre-office attorney-career wealth is not penalized. Clean fiduciary record.
6. Severity-Class Conduct
No documented Severity-class conduct under any of the eight criteria. No process-subversion (no Texas v. PA signature; ineligible and absent from the list), no sustained enemy-making or incitement pattern. Flag count: zero.
7. What The Framework Says
Kuster presents a clean, collaborative, scandal-free conduct record. The strengths are genuine and documented, founding and sustaining major bipartisan task forces, chairing a governing-minded coalition, and the personal-cost courage of disclosing her own assault history to advance accountability legislation. The honest ceiling is the absence of a singular oath-defense-at-everything anchor and limited documented challenge of her own party at cost. No contamination to strip (no impeachment/certification-vote scoring, no raw-wealth penalty, no enrichment). A solid upper-middle record measured against the oath, not a curve.
8. Sources & Where To Look Deeper
Tier 1 (primary): Congress.gov member record · House Financial/Travel Disclosures (LegiStorm mirror)
Tier 2: Lugar/McCourt Bipartisan Index · Roll Call, sexual-assault disclosure coverage
Research links: Congress.gov member profile · Ballotpedia · House History profile · OpenSecrets · Wikipedia
Scores derive from the fixed Constitutional Weight Schedule. The bar does not move. Conduct, not party.