Scorecard Updates Rankings of Politicians’ Success Seeking Common Ground on Issues That Matter to Voters
Common Ground Committee updates their voter assistance tool, which scores politicians on working across the aisle
Wilton, CT, October 28, 2021 – Common Ground Committee, Inc (CGC), a nonpartisan, citizen-led organization devoted to improving public discourse in politics, recently updated its Common Ground Scorecard. The average score for members of the House, Senate, and State governors increased to 29/110 from 26/110. Common Ground Committee designed the Scorecard as a tool for Americans. It is designed to show which lawmakers are most committed to working across the aisle in solving the issues that matter to their constituents. They can see how those representatives have performed on finding common ground and making bipartisan progress.
“Legislation requires cooperation just to get out of committees in Congress and be considered for a vote. That means partisanship gets in the way of solutions to the very real issues facing our nation,” said Bruce Bond, co-founder and CEO of Common Ground Committee. “We are delighted that since we launched the Scorecard in 2020, the average score has gone up by 3 points. This small increase is a sign we are moving in the right direction, but there is still a long way to go. Our hope is that Americans will use the Scorecard to assess their lawmakers’ performance on seeking common ground when deciding for whom to vote, and will push their representatives to continue moving towards a more collaborative culture.”
The highest-profile politicians have been scored, including the President and Vice President, Members of the United States Congress and state governors have been scored. Notable scores are as follows:
Key Political Figures:
● President Joe Biden, 41/110 (down from 43/110)
● Vice President Kamala Harris, 20/110 (no change since 2020)
● House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 0/110 (down from 29/110)
● House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, 37/110 (up from 36/110)
● Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, 30/110 (up from 29/110)
● Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, 32/110 (up from 29/110)
Highest Scores Nationwide:
● Representative Don Bacon (NE-2), 108/110
● Representative Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-1), 100/110
● Governor Spencer Cox (UT), 95/110
● Representative Fred Upton (MI-6), 94/110
● Representative Antonio Delgado (NY-19), 94/110
● Representative Elaine Luria (VA-2), 93/110
● Representative Dean Phillips (MN-3), 90/110
● Representative Abigail Spanberger (VA-7 H), 90/110
● Representative John Katko (NY-24), 90/110
● Representative David Trone (MD-6), 90/110
Largest Improvement since October 2020:
● Up 67: Representative David Trone (MD-6) 90/110
● Up 64: Representative Ed Case (HI-1), 88/110
● Up 59: Representative Kim Young (CA-39), 59/110
● Up 55: Representative Antonio Delgado (NY-19), 94/110
● Up 51: Representative Dutch Ruppersberger (MD-2), 80/110
● Up 50: Governor Spencer Cox (UT) 95/110
● Up 41: Representative Dean Phillips (MN-3), 90/110
● Up 39: Representative Carolyn Bourdeaux (GA-7), 39/110
● Up 36: Senator Todd Young (IN), 69/110
● Up 35: Representative Kim Schrier (WA-8) 38/110
● Up 33: Representative Dusty Johnson (SD-0), 70/110
● Up 30: Senator Mitt Romney (UT), 55/110
● Up 30: Representative Cindy Axne (IA-3), 39/110
● Up 28: Representative Van Taylor (TX-3), 75/110
● Up 27: Representative Jared Golden (ME-2), 56/110
● Up 26: Senator Maggie Hassan (NH), 79/110
● Up 25: Representative Tom Malinowski (NJ-7), 51/110
● Up 25: Representative Angie Craig (MN-2), 64/110
● Up 24: Senator Kevin Cramer (ND), 42/110
● Up 24: Representative David McKinley (WV-1), 75/110
● Up 23: Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-8), 63/110
● Up 22: Representative Scott Peters (CA-52), 79/110
● Up 21: Representative David Cicilline (RI-1), 50/110
● Up 21: Senator Joni Ernst (IA), 35/110
● Up 20: Representative Donald Payne, Jr. (NJ-10), 46/110
● Up 20: Representative Chrissy Houlahan (PA-6), 44/110
● Up 19: Representative Val Butler Demings (FL-10), 30/110
● Up 19: Representative Don Bacon (NE-2), 108/110
● Up 19: Representative John Curtis (UT-3), 58/110
● Up 18: Senator Bill Cassidy (LA), 78/110
● Up 18: Senator Ed Markey (MA), 41/110
● Up 17: Governor Gretchen Whitmer (MI), 42/110
● Up 17: Senator Chris Coons (DE), 64/110
● Up 17: Representative Susan Wild (PA-7), 41/110
● Up 17: Representative Guy Reschenthaler (PA-14), 25/110
● Up 16: Representative Joe Neguse (CO-2), 41/110
● Up 16: Senator Jerry Moran (KS), 77/110
● Up 16: Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE-0), 71/110
● Up 16: Representative Stephanie Murphy (FL-7), 74/110
● Up 16: Representative Conor Lamb (PA-17), 50/110
● UP: 16: Representative Jack Bergman (MI-1), 42/110
● Up 15: Representative Lucy McBath (GA-6), 39/110
● Up 15: Representative Gus Bilirakis (FL-12), 54/110
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 Americans 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.
Using the Common Ground Scorecard, Americans 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 all the officials that represent them. 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 many sources including the Lugar Index, GovTrack, the Bipartisan Policy Center and others. Additional points can be earned via commitments to finding common ground going forward, which 23 lawmakers have made, or deducted for personal demonizing.
For interview requests, please contact Emily Cooper at ecooper@momentum-cg.com or 212-671-2086
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About Common Ground Committee
Common Ground Committee (CGC) (commongroundcommittee.org) 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 14 public forums featuring panelists who have reached over 200 points of consensus. Panelists have included such notables as David Petraeus, Susan Rice, John Kerry, Condoleezza Rice, Michael Steele, Donna Brazile and Larry Kudlow, exploring issues ranging from race and income inequality to foreign policy. CGC is also responsible for the “Let’s Find Common Ground” podcast series and the Common Ground Scorecard, a voting tool which scores politicians and candidates for public office on their likelihood to find common ground with the opposite party. Free of political agenda and financial influence, CGC has a singular focus on bringing light, not heat, to public discourse.
