Analysis shows disproportionate departure of ‘bridgers’ in Congress

A disproportionate number of Capitol Hill’s most collaborative lawmakers are leaving their seats this year either for retirement or to pursue a different office, according to an analysis from Bridge Pledge, a project that aims to counter political polarization.

The group awards “Bridge Grades” to lawmakers based on their collaboration, coalition building, consensus solutions, and commitments to bridging. Those with A or B grades are deemed “bridgers,” while those with C or F are “dividers.”

Their latest analysis found that out of the 53 lawmakers who are departing, 70 percent of those legislators are bridgers, despite there being an even split between bridgers and dividers in Congress overall.

Among the retiring bridgers are Reps. Annie Kuster (D-N.H.), Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) and Garret Graves (R-La.), and Sens. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah). 

“I find that to be really troubling, because these are already bodies that have lost the art of collaboration,” Brad Porteus, executive director and founder of Bridge Pledge, told The Hill.

“There’s going to be people at the table who don’t have to share the same views as you. Would you rather have someone at the table who will listen and who will try to understand your point of view?” Porteus said.

The grading system incorporates more than a dozen metrics from six public data sources, including The Lugar Center, the Common Ground Committee and GovTrack, to assess members.

Porteus looked at additional factors, such as bills authored with sponsorship from opposite parties and volume of personal or partisan attacks. He then normalized the data to create a grading curve in which half of lawmakers had A/B grades and half had C/F grades.

The grades are also created in the context of each legislator’s district or state. For example, a singular collaborative act in a heavily red or blue district holds more weight than a similar act in a more purple one.

The analysis found that within the Senate, bridgers and dividers are relatively balanced across party lines, with 25 Democrats, 21 Republicans and three independents receiving A’s and B’s. The House, however, isn’t quite the same story, with Democrats making up 56 percent of bridgers, compared to the GOP’s 44 percent.

The current top bridgers in the House are Reps. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), who is leaving the House to run for governor. Current top bridgers in the Senate include Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.), none of whom are up for reelection.  

This is the first election cycle Bridge Pledge has conducted its analysis. The project is affiliated with the Mediators Foundation, which backs efforts to reduce conflict in various ways. Porteus worked in corporate communications overseas before returning to the U.S. in January and launching the project.

In creating this system, Porteus hopes to help change the system that creates polarization and instead encourage voters to take a pledge to support bridgers.

With more extremist politicians garnering more attention from voters and within their respective parties, Porteus said there is a lack of incentive to be a coalition-builder and risk being ousted by the party base.

“When you look at the list of the bridgers and you look at the people who have F’s, I recognize almost all of the names of people who are on that list,” he said. “And when look at the list of people who have earned A’s, I don’t recognize those people.”

With this grading scale, Porteus and Bridge Pledge hope to give more recognition to the bridgers as opposed to the dividers.

“There’s an opportunity to nudge not only the composition of the bodies themselves to becoming more collaborative, but actually the culture within Congress towards a more collaborative way of legislating,” he said.