By Sherry Robinson
All She Wrote
 

Entertainer-turned-politician Kinky Friedman was asked in 2006 about getting the Democrats and Republicans to work together. He responded, “I’m running for governor, not God.”

            After months of political advertising that’s more punishing than enlightening, the likelihood of anybody working together to get something done seems remote, despite all their fine language about “reaching across the aisle.”

            And yet, sometimes they do. There’s even a measure of how often this happens in Congress.

In 2015 two organizations created the Bipartisan Index to rank how often members of Congress work across party lines. The Lugar Center and Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy said at the time that “hyper-partisanship has frequently paralyzed congressional decision-making and led both Republicans and Democrats to fail the most basic tests of governance.”

The Bipartisan Index looks at how often a member co-sponsors a bill that was introduced by the other party and how often a member introduces a bill that attracts co-sponsors from the other party.

“The aim of the Index is to highlight members’ willingness to get results, regardless of party,” wrote the two founders, former Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, and Edward Montgomery, dean of the McCourt School.

New Mexico’s congressional delegations since 2015 have been mostly in the middle, but former Reps. Yvette Herrell, Republican, and Michelle Lujan Grisham, Democrat, notched the two worst rankings.

In the most recent index (118th Congress, first session, in 2023), Rep. Gabe Vasquez, a Democrat, ranked 117th of 436 representatives. Fellow Dems Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez and Rep. Melanie Stansbury were 315th and 373rd. First on the national list that period was Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-PA; at the bottom was Rep. Jim Jordan, R-OH. Next to last was Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY.

(Some lawmakers are not ranked because they’ve served briefly. Majority and minority leaders are also excluded.)

In the 117th Congress (2021-2022), Rep. Yvette Herrell ranked 425th of 441. Leger Fernandez and Stansbury were 223rd and 226th.  Herrell was not far from Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-CO, who was last, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-GA, who was next to last.

The Senate is a different story, with the state’s two senators maintaining respectable rankings. In the most recent index Sen. Ben Ray Lujan was 36th of 98 senators ranked, and Sen. Martin Heinrich was 56th. In first place was Sen. Susan Collins, R-ME; in last place was Sen. Katie Britt, R-AL.

What can we learn here?

Gabe Vasquez scored his 117th place after redistricting transformed the shape of CD2, leaving it competitive with a slight tilt toward Democrats. Still, Vasquez’s score indicates he wasn’t taking political survival for granted and was out to show he could work with both sides. The lowest ranking for a New Mexican from 2021 to 2023 belongs to Herrell, who served her term before redistricting, when CD2 was more Republican. She and other occupants of the list’s lower reaches apparently didn’t feel a need to cross the aisle.

Ben Ray Lujan, in the House and the Senate, has steadily improved his rank, meaning that he has found more opportunities to work with Republicans. Lujan has regularly scored above Heinrich, and Heinrich’s rankings have been in the middle.

Fun facts: In the 115th Congress, Rep. Steve Pearce, who today is Republican Party chairman, ranked 265th, and Lujan Grisham, now governor, ranked 357th. In the 114th Congress, Pearce ranked 289th, and Lujan Grisham ranked 300th. In the 113th Congress, Lujan Grisham ranked 284th, and Pearce ranked 351st.

The Bipartisan Index is one more bite of information in a smorgasbord of analysis. But if you’re tired of congressional gridlock and want to know who will reach out to the other party, the index can help.  

Sherry Robinson is a longtime New Mexico reporter and editor. She has worked in Grants, Gallup, the Albuquerque Journal, New Mexico Business Weekly and Albuquerque Tribune. She is the author of four books. Her columns won first place in 2024 from New Mexico Press Women.