New Common Ground Scorecard Rates Politician’s Commitment to Seek Agreement on Issues that Matters to Voters
New Common Ground Scorecard Rates Politician’s Commitment to Seek Agreement on Issues that Matters to Voters
Newly released voter assistance tool scores politicians’ success at working across the aisle
Wilton, CT, September 10, 2020 – Common Ground Committee, Inc (CGC), a nonpartisan, citizen-led organization devoted to improving public discourse in politics, has launched its newest initiative: the Common Ground Scorecard. The scorecard is the first-ever model to assess the degree to which elected public officials and candidates for office seek points of agreement on social and political issues through listening and productive conversation, ranking politicians up to a maximum of 110 points, using aggregated data from the Lugar Index, GovTrack, the Bipartisan Policy Center and other data sources. Additional points can be earned via commitments to finding common ground going forward, or deducted for personal demonizing.
Voters will head to the polls this November amidst unprecedented challenges. This new landscape necessitates a tool to help Americans see which candidates are most committed to working across the aisle to solve these issues. Using the Common Ground Scorecard, voters can search for public officials by name, state, or office held. They can also search using their own zip code to get a list of the officials that will appear on their ballots. They can see how those representatives have performed on finding common ground and making bipartisan progress.
“As we head towards a critical election cycle, it’s become increasingly clear that partisanship is getting in the way of solutions to the very real issues facing our nation,” said Bruce Bond, co-founder and CEO of Common Ground Committee. “Our hope is that the Scorecard will be a tool Americans will use to help them choose who they will vote for in the 2020 election.”
The highest-profile politicians have been scored, in addition to all state lawmakers. The average score is 26 and the median is 25. Notable scores are as follows:
- President Donald Trump, -20/110
- Vice President Mike Pence, 20/110
- Former Vice President Joe Biden, 43/110
- Senator Kamala Harris, 20/110
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 29/110
- House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, 36/110
- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, 29/110
- Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, 29/110
This video provides a short walkthrough of the scorecard and how to use it. A summary of the highest and lowest scorers can be found here.
Common Ground Committee does not endorse political candidates. The organization’s only goal in providing the Common Ground Scorecard is to provide voters with an objective, up-to-date and easy-to-understand tool to discover how likely their elected officials or candidates for public office are to work with the opposite party to find common ground.
For interview requests, please contact Zachary Halper at zhalper@momentum-cg.com or 862-224-3233
About Common Ground Committee
Common Ground Committee (CGC) is a nonpartisan, citizen-led organization that inspires action on polarizing issues by bringing prominent leaders with opposing views together in public forums to find common ground. Since its founding in 2009, CGC has held 11 forums featuring panelists who have reached over 200 points of consensus. Panelist pairs have included such notables as David Petraeus and Susan Rice, John Kerry and Condoleezza Rice, Michael Steele and Donna Brazile, and Larry Kudlow and Barney Frank, exploring issues ranging from race and income inequality to foreign policy. Free of political agenda and financial influence, CGC has a singular focus on bringing light, not heat, to public discourse.
