Should evaluators care about the impact of evaluation on the public policy process? If the larger purpose of evaluation is social betterment, the public policy arena affords tremendous opportunities for evaluators to have both short- and long-term impact by influencing policy formulation, implementation, and outcomes. Working in the public policy arena inevitably involves coming in contact with politics, which raises two questions. First, should evaluators avoid politics? After all, evaluators are expected to provide independent assessment of policies and programs. Often this expectation implies that evaluators can insulate themselves from the politics of their environment; political entanglement is something to be avoided. Second, can they conduct evaluation in a vacuum devoid of any politics and still be effective in influencing the public policy process? This chapter examines issues in managing the politics of evaluation by considering the context in which an evaluation occurs and by maximizing both evaluators' independence from and their responsiveness to stakeholders. (Contains 2 figures.)