slides: See How OR’s Lawmakers Rank for Bipartisanship

Friday, December 18, 2015
GoLocalPDX News Team

Ron Wyden

A new study of the voting records of the United States Senate for the past 11 Congresses found that Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley are the most partisan Senators from the Beaver State in more than two decades.

The index found that Merkley was more partisan than even the staunches Republicans. Republican Presidential candidate Marco Rubio (R-FL), ranked #170, former Pennsylvania Senator and Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum, ranked #145, and South Carolina Senator and Presidential Candidate Lindsey Graham, ranked #122, all finished with a better ranking than Merkley.
The most partisan according to the Index is former U.S. Jim DeMint of South Carolina who came in at #227.

The study was developed by the Lugar Center at Georgetown University — founded by former Indiana Senator Dick Lugar. He formerly served in the Senate a Republican who was known for his work in building consensus on tough foreign policy and economic issues.

The Bipartisan Index is intended to fill a hole in the information available to the public about the performance of members of Congress. There are innumerable studies, rankings, and indexes that grade members according to a partisan, parochial, or special-interest standards.

Jim Moore, Director of the Tom McCall Center for Policy Innovation at Pacific University, told GoLocal that the increasingly partisan congress is the result of an increasingly polarized voter base and should be watched closely.

“Oregon’s lawmakers act as they feel they must to be effective in Washington, D.C., and they are overwhelmingly reelected every time. In their minds, and looking at electoral results, they are simply fulfilling the will of the voters,” Moore said. “Until congress starts being a place for legislative solutions, there is no incentive to be bipartisan. Those who are more bipartisan in the past few years hope for a future in which the centrists in the two parties can work together to create laws.”

SEE SLIDES BELOW: See How OR’s Lawmakers Rank for Bipartisanship