U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole also ranks poorly compared to the rest of her class.

Of the nine senators elected in 2002 still in office, Dole is ranked eighth in power rankings put together by the nonpartisan Congressional data company Knowlegis.

Here's the ranks of her classmates:

Lamar Alexander: 32nd
Lindsey Graham: 60th
Saxby Chambliss: 61st
Mark Pryor: 62nd
John Cornyn: 80th
Norm Coleman: 82nd
John Sununu: 89th
Elizabeth Dole: 93rd
Lisa Murkowski: 96th

Except for Pryor, all of Dole's 2002 classmates are Republicans.

Knowlegis cofounder Brad Fitch said that comparing senators to others who took office in the same year is the best way to gauge their power, since seniority gives senators more power. 

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr says he wasn't surprised this morning to lose his bid for the No. 3 post in the Republicann Senate leadership.

But he thought he would get more than 16 votes.

Burr lost his bid to be chairman of the Republican Conference to Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. The vote was 31-16, reports Barb Barrett.

“I congratulate Lamar,” Burr told reporters outside the closed-door meeting in the U.S. Capitol. “He ran a great campaign.”

Burr said he knew Wednesday night he didn’t have enough votes to win – though he thought he had more than 16. Senators voted by secret ballot.

“It was an uphill climb,” he said.

Read more after the jump.

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U.S. Sen. Richard Burr will have to wait a bit longer to move up the ranks in the Senate.

Burr lost his bid this morning for the chairmanship of the Republican Conference, the number three leadership position among Senate Republicans, reports Barb Barrett.

Burr lost the closed-door secret-ballot vote to U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.

Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, is reporting that one of Sen. Richard Burr’s rivals for a GOP leadership position has bowed out of the race.

Citing anonymous sources, Roll Call says Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas began telling colleagues today that she will not run, reports Barb Barrett.

That would leave just Burr and Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee in the race to become chairman of the Republican Conference, a policy position that is No. 3 in the Senate Republican leadership.

The vote comes Thursday morning behind closed doors.

Burr’s spokesman, Chris Walker, had no comment on the news.

Will U.S. Sen. Richard Burr win his campaign for a leadership post?

A closer look at campaign finance records by the Sunlight Foundation gives reason for skepticism.

The numbers suggest that his competition for the Republican conference chairman, Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Lamar Alexander, have better odds.

Hutchinson has 20 former staffers now working as lobbyists, compared to three for Burr and none for Alexander. Her leadership PAC raised $632,000, compared to $215,000 for Burr's and $15,000 for Alexander's.

"If you're just following the money, you might infer that more people with more at stake on Capitol Hill have a vested interest in Hutchison moving up as opposed to Burr or Alexander," the Foundation notes. 

In addition, Hutchinson got more earmarks in agriculture, defense, energy and water and other bills.

On another front, the group found that Burr's votes most often match Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss and least often match Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.

Today's retirement announcement by Republican stalwart Sen. Trent Lott has gotten Sen. Richard Burr to thinking: Should he join the GOP's Senate leadership team?

If the dominoes fall correctly, Burr could get the chance, Barb Barrett reports.

Burr, a freshman senator, will seek the chairmanship of the policy-oriented Republican conference if the job becomes open. It is the No. 3 position in the GOP hierarchy.

The current conference leader, Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, may seek Lott's current position as minority whip.

Lott, of Mississippi, said today he will retire from the Senate by the end of the year—a move that, by inside-the-Beltway standards, shakes things up a bit in the Republican ranks.

More after the jump.

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