Maureen Groppe

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – Former Indiana governor Mike Pence gets his new title Friday: vice president.

But even before he takes the oath of office, Pence already has a host of nicknames. Trump whisperer. Explainer-in-chief. Healer-in-chief for a fractured GOP. Chief fixer on Capitol Hill.

And House Speaker Paul Ryan — who is close to Pence — very nearly introduced Pence at a recent Capitol Hill news conference as “Vice President-elect Trump.”

As those names suggest, there’s been much speculation that Pence has the potential to be an unusually influential vice president.

The role, created as almost an afterthought by the founding fathers with few defined duties, has developed over the last 40 years into a substantial position. Add to that the fact that Pence will be No. 2 to the first president entering office without any governing or military experience — and one who revels in his unconventionality and disdain for Washington.

Pence, by contrast, has been a governor, spent 12 years in the House including some in leadership positions, and has strong ties to influential activists groups such as the American Conservative Union, the Club for Growth and the groups run by the arch-conservative Koch brothers.

All that makes his new job a huge opportunity for Pence, but also carries big risk. “Pence could be the most powerful vice president ever, or he could be kicked to the curb really fast,” said Elaine Kamarck, a scholar at the Brookings Institution who worked for Vice President Al Gore.

Indiana Republican Greg Zoeller, who worked for Vice President Dan Quayle, said Pence has a greater opportunity to showcase his skills and play a larger role than have most vice presidents. At the same time, Zoeller said, “there’s more opportunities to both succeed and fail.”

Pence, who declined an interview request, has highlighted in interviews with other media the role he expects to play coordinating between the White House and Capitol Hill.

“My experience on Capitol Hill and as governor and the relationships that came from those things are among the reasons (Trump) asked me to run with him and now to serve with him,” Pence told columnist Cal Thomas last month. “I hope, in addition to the other duties that president will have me serve in as vice president, to play a supporting role in communicating the president’s agenda to members of Congress.”

Trump’s spokesman likewise pointed to Pence’s strong ties with Capitol Hill when asked about Pence’s role in the new administration. He vowed Trump would use that relationship “to the fullest extent possible.”

“There’s a reason he rode through the ranks of leadership so quickly,” spokesman Sean Spicer said of Pence’s past role as head of the House Republican Conference. “It’s because people on both sides of the aisle had tremendous respect for his ability to solve problems, get things done and do it in a way that was collegial.”

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A sometimes ridiculed and ignored position

The Senate Historical Office has called the job of vice president the “least understood, most ridiculed, and most often ignored constitutional office in the federal government.” It’s also been called — by Vice President John Garner (1933-1941) — “not worth a bucket of warm spit.”

“My country has contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived,” John Adams said. “I can do neither good nor evil.”

The Senate Historical Office’s book on the office says the Founding Fathers devoted scant attention to the duties of the vice president, which initially was the title for the man who came in second in the Electoral College vote. The Constitution also made the No. 2 executive the president of the Senate, but he can only vote if there’s a tie. “If the vice president were not to be president of the Senate, he would be without employment,” said Connecticut delegate Roger Sherman.

The job didn’t evolve into more of an executive branch position until the 20th century. And it wasn’t until Vice President Walter Mondale worked out a new approach with Jimmy Carter that the man next in line to be president became a real partner instead of an also-ran.

For most of the nation’s history, running mates were chosen to provide geographic or ideological “balance” to the presidential ticket without much thought to what they would do in the office or even if the pair would get along, Kamarck wrote in paper last year.

While Carter’s selection of Mondale began as a classic attempt to balance ideology as well as pair a Midwesterner with a Southerner, according to Kamarck, Mondale’s closeness with Carter led to an elevation of the job — including giving the vice president a West Wing office and a chance to lunch privately with the president every week.

“There’s a natural, built-in process where every vice president looks at what the previous vice president did and says 'I want that, too,’ ” said David Beckwith, who was Quayle’s spokesman. “And then they look around for something else” to add to their duties.

But it’s up to the president to decide whether to allow it. "The power of the vice presidency is reflective,” outgoing Vice President Biden, who had a close relationship with President Obama, has said. “It's totally dependent on how much confidence the president communicates to others and how much authority you are delegated.”

Pence has already been given authority, most notably when Trump had him take over the transition team from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. “It was a great signal of how their relationship solidified during the campaign,” said former Indiana Rep. David McIntosh, a close friend of Pence’s who worked for Quayle and now heads the Club for Growth.

Trump administration picks that appear to have been influenced by Pence include former senator Dan Coats for director of national intelligence, Rep. Tom Price for Health and Human services secretary, Rep. Mike Pompeo to head the CIA and Indiana consultant Seema Verma to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The only other vice president-elect besides Pence who headed a transition team was Dick Cheney, whom Kamarck said went on to become “perhaps the most powerful vice president of all time.” Before joining the George W. Bush’s administration, Cheney had already been a White House chief of staff and defense secretary, as well as a member of the House. In addition to the office space in the Senate that comes with the vice presidential job, Cheney also had space on the House side so he could work on tax bills, which originate in that chamber.

Pence, who cites Cheney as his role model for the job, will also have offices on both sides of the Capitol. And, like Cheney, Pence plans to regularly attend Senate Republican’s weekly lunch meetings.

Quayle thinks Pence will “be involved in everything.”

“He’ll be working to repeal and replace Obamacare. He’ll be working on tax reform,” said Quayle, who has met with Pence. “Those are two huge initiatives right out of the box that are going to take a lot of his time.”

Trump chose as his congressional liaison Marc Short, who was a top Pence aide when he chaired the House Republican Conference.

Pence has made frequent trips to Capitol Hill since the election where he’s rallied fellow Republicans, made sure they know they can call him anytime and reached out to those who were publicly critical of Trump during the campaign. He also met privately with Democratic leaders, as well as some moderate Democrats who might be willing to cross party lines on some issues. Pence is working on Trump’s major campaign promises including dismantling Obamacare and building a wall along the border with Mexico.

“Mike Pence is leading an effort to get final approvals through various agencies and through Congress for the wall to begin,” Trump said at his news conference Wednesday.

Pence has already gotten some flattering headlines for the scrapbook.

“Pence is Key to the First 100 Days,” CQ Weekly recently reported. “Pence emerges As Trump’s Point Person With Wary Hill Republicans,” declared Bloomberg.

Indiana Democratic Party Chair John Zody is less impressed.

“Right now he’s been up there and all he did was offer the same talking points he usually does,” Zody said about Pence’s Capitol Hill trip to discuss the Obamacare repeal. “He didn’t offer any detail about what they want to do, which is usual for Mike Pence.”

Power on Capitol Hill?

As Trump attacked Washington during the campaign in frequent calls to “drain the swamp,” Pence also slammed the city where his political career took off. “I often say, if I only had 12 years left to life, I’d want to live it as a member of Congress — because that was the longest 12 years of my life,” Pence would often repeat.

Yet Indiana Rep. Luke Messer, who succeeded Pence, said he was reminded of the “strong spirited congressman that used to represent me” when Pence met with House Republicans recently to talk about the Obamacare repeal and told them now is not the time to get weak-kneed.

“He’s clearly in his element any time he comes and speaks before our conference,” Messer said.

Even though two-thirds of House Republicans were elected after Pence left and haven’t served with him, there was a “big sigh of relief” on Capitol Hill when Trump chose Pence, said Rep. Chris Collins, a New York Republican who is transition team’s congressional liaison. “Clearly Donald Trump’s selection was an acknowledgement to reach out to lawmakers who were frankly very skeptical — myself and a handful of others being the exception — of Mr. Trump and how the administration would function,” Collins said. “And I believe President Trump will trust him to get bills over the finish line that he can sign into law.”

Indiana native Ron Klain, who was chief of staff to both Biden and Gore, said Pence is likely to find that being the go-to-guy for Capitol Hill is a double-edge sword. “No president ever gets everything they want,” Klain said. “However effective Mike Pence is in delivering on that, the day will come when he has to deliver bad news to the president. This is not a president-elect who likes to get bad news, apparently.”

McIntosh said Trump’s decision-making style is to have a lot of strong people around him, consult them, and then make a decision.

“Mike is in a special position where Trump and he have agreed that they’ll also have a private conversation, will have a regular standing lunch with him to be able to talk about the advice that he’s giving,” McIntosh said. “And then when the decision is made, Trump’s expectations — and I think Mike’s view of his job — is to be a loyal solider in helping execute and get the job done.”

While there’s an opportunity for Pence to be uniquely influential, whether he is will depend on the quality of the advice he gives, his skill at handling assignments and his ability to develop and sustain a relationship with Trump, said Joel Goldstein, a vice presidential expert at the Saint Louis University School of Law, said. George H W. Bush and Biden were among the vice presidents whose influence increased over time because of the way they handled their job. Cheney, by contrast, started out extremely powerful but his influence declined after missteps on Iraq and the handling of the warrantless surveillance programs, Goldstein said.

“It remains to be seen what (Pence’s) role will be on a continuing basis and how influential he’ll be,” Goldstein said.

Contributing: Tony Cook of the Indianapolis Star