Party unity 90.0%, in the bottom 5% of the Connecticut Senate (average 97.9%). 863 roll calls in the CT 2025–26 session.
Party unity counts only party-line roll calls, where most Democrats and most Republicans voted on opposite sides, and is the share of those where Kissel voted with the majority of Connecticut Senate Republicans; it is ranked within the Connecticut Senate. The count covers every roll call where Kissel voted opposite that majority.
At a glance
6 measures against the Connecticut Senate. 75% of the 59 bills Kissel sponsored got out of committee, in the top tenth of the Connecticut Senate. Kissel sits at +0.23 on the CSIP scale, more liberal than 70% of State Senate Republicans.
The measures on which Kissel sits furthest from the middle of the Connecticut Senate, each against the same group, with the CSIP score when there is one. Every number is explained in its own section below.
Party unity
Connecticut Senate average 97.9% · ranks 35th of 36 · 33 votes against the majority of Connecticut Senate Republicans
Out of committee
Connecticut Senate average 40% · ranks 4th of 35
CSIP ideology
More liberal than 70% of State Senate Republicans · ± 0.04
Itemized, 2026
State Senate Republicans’ median $46.2K · ranks 633rd of 936
Attendance
Connecticut Senate average 97.8% · ranks 16th of 36 · 863 roll calls
From Connecticut, 2026
Of itemized individual dollars · ranks 427th of 860 State Senate Republicans
Peer group: Connecticut Senate. Rank 1 is the highest value in the group; the thick bar is Kissel, the thin grey bar the peer average. The headline is the measure on which Kissel is most unusual among peers (Methods, §08).
What Kissel says
No statements for the CT 2025–26 session.No classified statements (posts, press releases, newsletters, floor speeches) in this time window.
Policy
No policy statements for the CT 2025–26 session.No classified statements (posts, press releases, newsletters, floor speeches) in this time window.
Ideology
Kissel sits at +0.23 on the CSIP scale, right of 0, more liberal than 70% of State Senate Republicans. Approximate range +0.19 to +0.26, which understates the uncertainty; from 810 donors and 392 roll calls.
CSIP, the lab’s Common-Space Ideal Point, places every official, federal and state, on one left–right scale, estimated from roll-call votes, who gives money to whom, and the text of statements. Negative is left of 0, positive right of it; 0 is the centre of the scale, not a definition of “moderate”.
CSIP ideal point
Approximate range +0.19 to +0.26. From 810 donors and 392 roll calls. Run 2026-10-25T215945. Blue is left of 0, red right of 0.
The outlined dot is Kissel, coloured by its side of 0 (blue left, red right, deeper further out); the bar through it is the approximate range (±1.96 standard errors), which understates the uncertainty; the grey ticks below are the medians of Kissel’s groups. 0 is the centre of the scale, not “moderate” by definition.
What this means, and what it doesn’t
The score summarises how an official votes, who funds them and how they talk, relative to everyone else. It does not grade positions as good or bad, and two officials with the same score can differ on any single issue. The ± range is 1.96 standard errors, which understates the uncertainty: scores whose ranges overlap may not differ at all, and even scores whose ranges do not overlap may not differ.
Where Kissel sits
Every official in each group, on the CSIP scale
Show the data
| Group | Officials | Median | Share left of Kissel |
|---|---|---|---|
| State Senate Republicans | 1083 | +0.4 | 30% |
| Connecticut Senate | 36 | −0.7 | 72% |
| All State Senate | 1909 | +0.1 | 60% |
How to read the strips
Every small dot is one official on the same scale, coloured by its own score (blue left of 0, red right of 0, grey at 0, deeper further out) and spread up and down only to keep dots apart; where a group is crowded the dots overlap, and darker patches mean more officials. The large outlined dot is Kissel in every row; the rule is each group’s median. The table under the figure gives the share of each group to the left of Kissel.
Money
Kissel reported $20.9K in the 2026 cycle, below the State Senate Republicans’ median of $46.2K. State filings report no small-donation total. 96% of itemized individual money came from Connecticut.
Campaign money from state campaign-finance filings, as aggregates only; the lab never shows an individual donor. Campaigns must report by name every person who gives them more than $200 in a cycle (“itemized”); smaller gifts are reported only as one total (“unitemized”), so donor counts, donor states, employers and occupations describe itemized donors only. State filings report no small-gift total, so these figures add up itemized contributions only.
itemized in the 2026 cycle
From 403 itemized donors. State Senate Republicans’ median $46.2K.
Where the money came from
Each square is one percent of itemized contributions in the 2026 cycle.
- Individuals (itemized)100 squares$20.9K
Show the data
| Source | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Individuals (itemized) | $20.9K | 100.0% |
What this means, and what it doesn’t
Totals say how much a campaign took in, not how it was spent, and they rise sharply when a seat is up for election; compare cycles with that in mind.
Receipts by cycle
Itemized contributions, 2020 to 2026. The grey line is the State Senate Republicans’ median for 2026.
Show the data
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2020 cycle | $16.7K |
| 2022 cycle | $18.1K |
| 2024 cycle | $17.9K |
| 2026 cycle | $20.9K |
Top donor states, 2026
Itemized contributions by donor state. 96% came from Connecticut.
- Connecticut$20.0K
- Florida$340
- Rhode Island$250
- North Carolina$200
- Massachusetts$120
Small donations
State filings report no total for small gifts.
Not reported in state filings.
Where itemized donors live
Individuals who gave more than $200, by donor state
Show the data
| State | Value |
|---|---|
| Connecticut | $20.0K |
| Florida | $340 |
| Rhode Island | $250 |
| North Carolina | $200 |
| Massachusetts | $120 |
| Alaska | No data |
| Maine | No data |
| Vermont | No data |
| New Hampshire | No data |
| Washington | No data |
| Idaho | No data |
| Montana | No data |
| North Dakota | No data |
| Minnesota | No data |
| Illinois | No data |
| Wisconsin | No data |
| Michigan | No data |
| New York | No data |
| Oregon | No data |
| Nevada | No data |
| Wyoming | No data |
| South Dakota | No data |
| Iowa | No data |
| Indiana | No data |
| Ohio | No data |
| Pennsylvania | No data |
| New Jersey | No data |
| California | No data |
| Utah | No data |
| Colorado | No data |
| Nebraska | No data |
| Missouri | No data |
| Kentucky | No data |
| West Virginia | No data |
| Virginia | No data |
| Maryland | No data |
| Delaware | No data |
| Arizona | No data |
| New Mexico | No data |
| Kansas | No data |
| Arkansas | No data |
| Tennessee | No data |
| South Carolina | No data |
| District of Columbia | No data |
| Oklahoma | No data |
| Louisiana | No data |
| Mississippi | No data |
| Alabama | No data |
| Georgia | No data |
| Hawaii | No data |
| Texas | No data |
itemized donors
People who gave more than $200
from Connecticut
Of itemized individual dollars
How to read the map
Every state the same size. Darker states gave more itemized money; hatched states had no itemized donors; the outlined state is Connecticut. Gifts of $200 or less carry no address and are left out.
Top donor occupations
Itemized, 2026 cycle.
- RETIRED$4,605 136 donors
- LOBBYIST$1,665 19 donors
- ATTORNEY$1,490 11 donors
- TRIAL LAWYER$1,470 8 donors
- CEO$650 4 donors
Top committees
PAC and committee contributions, 2026 cycle.
No committee contributions this cycle.
Top employers
Itemized, 2026 cycle.
- STATE OF CONNECTICUT$655 8 donors
- GAFFNEY, BENNETT & ASSOCIATES$550 6 donors
- STUDENT$420 11 donors
- FOCUS GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS$300 3 donors
- ROME SMITH KOWALSKI$300 3 donors
Aggregates only. Individual donors are never named.
Votes
Kissel voted with the majority of Connecticut Senate Republicans on 90.0% of party-line votes and missed 1.3% of 863 roll calls. Connecticut Senate on average: 97.9% party unity, 97.8% attendance. Across all roll calls, Kissel voted against the majority of Connecticut Senate Republicans 33 times.
863 roll calls Kissel could vote on in the CT 2025–26 session, compared with Connecticut Senate. Attendance is the share with a vote recorded. Party unity counts only party-line roll calls, where most Democrats and most Republicans voted on opposite sides, and is the share of those where Kissel voted with the majority of Connecticut Senate Republicans. The count of votes against that majority covers every roll call where the majority took a side.
votes against the majority of Connecticut Senate Republicans
Party unity 90.0%, Connecticut Senate average 97.9%, ranks 35th of 36. 863 roll calls in the CT 2025–26 session.
Attendance and party unity
The thick bar is Kissel, the thin grey bar the Connecticut Senate average. The scale runs from 80% to 100% to show the gap.
Show the data
| Row | Kissel | Peers |
|---|---|---|
| Attendance | 98.7% | 97.8% |
| Party unity | 90.0% | 97.9% |
What this means, and what it doesn’t
A missed roll call has many causes, from illness to campaigning, so attendance says how often, not why. A vote against the majority can be on procedure as well as substance, and many fall on roll calls where both parties split; the key votes below show the ones that decided something.
Key votes
25 roll calls the lab flagged as key in the CT 2025–26 session
| Party split (yea–nay) | Why it’s key | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 6, 2026 | HB 5385 AN ACT ESTABLISHING A TASK FORCE TO STUDY UNDUE DELAY IN WORKERS' COMPENSATION CLAIMS BY POLICE OFFICERS AND FIREFIGHTERS. Senate Roll Call Vote | Yea | With majority | pass | D 25–0 · R 11–0Democrats 25 yea, 0 nay; Republicans 11 yea, 0 nay | became law |
| May 6, 2026 | HB 5001 AN ACT CONCERNING ABSENTEE VOTING FOR ALL AND VARIOUS OTHER REFORMS RELATED TO THE ADMINISTRATION OF ELECTIONS. Senate Roll Call Vote | Nay | With majority | pass | D 25–0 · R 0–11Democrats 25 yea, 0 nay; Republicans 0 yea, 11 nay | became law · much discussed |
| May 6, 2026 | HB 5043 AN ACT CONCERNING CONVERTIBLE PISTOLS, UNFINISHED FRAMES OR UNFINISHED LOWER RECEIVERS, VOLUNTARY RELINQUISHMENT OF FIREARMS AND AMMUNITION AND REFUNDABILITY OF PERMITS FOR SALE AT RETAIL OF FIREARMS AND FOR CARRYING OF PISTOLS AND REVOLVERS. Senate Roll Call Vote | Yea | With majority | fail | D 0–20 · R 11–0Democrats 0 yea, 20 nay; Republicans 11 yea, 0 nay | became law |
| May 6, 2026 | Yea | With majority | pass | D 25–0 · R 11–0Democrats 25 yea, 0 nay; Republicans 11 yea, 0 nay | became law | |
| May 6, 2026 | HB 5001 AN ACT CONCERNING ABSENTEE VOTING FOR ALL AND VARIOUS OTHER REFORMS RELATED TO THE ADMINISTRATION OF ELECTIONS. Senate Roll Call Vote | Yea | With majority | fail | D 0–25 · R 11–0Democrats 0 yea, 25 nay; Republicans 11 yea, 0 nay | became law · much discussed |
How key votes are chosen
Automatically: a final-passage or override vote where the measure became law, the margin was under 10%, at least 10% of either party voted against its majority, or the bill was among the 25 most mentioned in officials’ own statements. Up to 25 per window, most recent first; five are shown. Bars show yea on the left, nay on the right, per party.
Votes most often with
The colleagues who voted the same way as Kissel most often
- Paul CicarellaR842 shared votes96%
- Henri MartinR841 shared votes96%
- Eric BerthelR848 shared votes96%
- Jason PerilloR800 shared votes96%
- Jeff GordonR825 shared votes94%
Votes least often with
The colleagues who voted the same way as Kissel least often
- Christine CohenD819 shared votes71%
- Mae FlexerD807 shared votes71%
- Doug McCroryD800 shared votes71%
- Julie KushnerD828 shared votes72%
- Jan HochadelD816 shared votes72%
How to read the agreement lists
The share of roll calls both members voted on where they voted the same way, among colleagues sharing at least 50 such votes. High agreement with members of the other party is common on routine votes.
Full voting record
CT 2025–26 session, loads in batches
Legislation
Kissel sponsored 59 bills in the CT 2025–26 session; 41 became law. Cosponsored 0 others. 75% of sponsored bills got out of committee (Connecticut Senate average 40%; 4th of 35).
The bills Kissel sponsored and cosponsored in the CT 2025–26 session, from the official bill records, and how far each got: introduced, referred to or acted on in committee, passed one chamber, passed both, became law. A bill counts at every stage it has reached, so the blocks only shrink to the right.
Bills by stage
Counts for the CT 2025–26 session
Show the data
| Role | Introduced | In committee | Passed one chamber | Passed both chambers | Became law |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sponsored | 59 | 59 | 44 | 42 | 41 |
| Cosponsored | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
How to read the blocks
Ink blocks are bills Kissel sponsored, ochre blocks bills Kissel cosponsored; the figure above each block is the count. Most bills in any legislature never leave committee, so a short staircase is the norm.
of sponsored bills got out of committee
Connecticut Senate average 40%. Ranks 4th of 35.
Cosponsorship partners
Colleagues who most often cosponsor with Kissel, by number of shared bills in the CT 2025–26 session; the square shows their party.
- Paul Cicarella21
- Stephen Harding15
- Heather Somers15
- Craig Fishbein14
- Tom Delnicki13
What this means, and what it doesn’t
The score is the share of sponsored bills that a committee reported out or a chamber passed, with at least 5 sponsored bills, ranked within the peer group. Members of the majority party and committee chairs move more bills, so the rank reflects position in the chamber as well as effort. Cosponsorship partners are the five colleagues who share the most of Kissel’s bills; the toggle shows more.
Bill list
Sponsored and cosponsored, with status and policy area; five are shown, the toggle shows the rest
| HB 5577 | AN ACT AMENDING A CONVEYANCE OF A PARCEL OF LAND TO THE TOWN OF SOMERS. | Sponsor | Apr 7, 2026 | Became law | Public Lands and Natural Resources(model) | SIGNED BY GOVERNOR Jun 4, 2026 |
| HB 5447 | AN ACT IMPLEMENTING RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE TRANSFORMING CHILDREN'S BEHAVIORAL HEALTH POLICY AND PLANNING COMMITTEE. | Sponsor | Apr 2, 2026 | Became law | Health(model) | SIGNED BY GOVERNOR May 19, 2026 |
| SB 292 | AN ACT CONCERNING THE DEFINITION OF "CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE MATERIAL". | Sponsor | Mar 30, 2026 | Passed one chamber | Crime and Law Enforcement(model) | HOUSE CALENDAR NUMBER 584 May 6, 2026 |
| SB 475 | AN ACT CONCERNING JUDICIAL BRANCH OPERATIONS. | Sponsor | Mar 30, 2026 | Became law | Law(model) | SIGNED BY GOVERNOR Jun 4, 2026 |
| SB 296 | AN ACT CONCERNING RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER PROTECTION WITH RESPECT TO THE CONNECTICUT UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICES ACT AND SPORTS WAGERING. | Sponsor | Mar 30, 2026 | Became law | Commerce(model) | SIGNED BY GOVERNOR May 26, 2026 |
Online
A site that changed 3 times in 90 days. Kissel’s official site had 1 page when last crawled on Oct 1, 2026.
The lab crawls Kissel’s official and campaign websites (weekly for Congress, monthly for the states) and keeps every page’s text, so changes can be read later; it also records social accounts and describes the images Kissel posts with a vision model.
Websites
- 1
pages crawled
3changes in 90 days
How to read the counts
“Pages crawled” is the size of the site at the last crawl; “changes in 90 days” counts pages whose text differed from the previous crawl. Sites change for many routine reasons, such as new press releases, so a high count is not by itself notable.
Social accounts
Images Kissel posted
No images from Kissel’s posts have been described.
About the descriptions
Written by a vision model and may be wrong. Open the post to see the original. Five are shown; the toggle shows the rest.
State floor speeches
1,280 turns, Feb 26, 2020 to May 6, 2026
Floor speeches
Transcribed from chamber video or captions by the lab. They are not classified for kinds of statement.
Methods and sources
How this page was made. Profile built Oct 28, 2026; site last built Oct 28, 2026. Every number on the page is computed from the sources listed here, by the same rules for every official; nothing is written by hand.
The headline
The headline is the measure on which Kissel is most unusual among Connecticut Senate, chosen by one rule for every official of every party. The candidates are the rate of each kind of statement and of extreme labels, party unity, attendance, the small-donor share, the in-state share and total receipts of the latest cycle, the share of sponsored bills that got out of committee, talk-to-bills agreement, and the CSIP score’s place within the party group.
The builder ranks every measure within the same peer group the page compares it with, and writes each official’s percentile: the share of the group below the value, ties counting half, so 0.5 is the median and a value shared by many never ranks first. A measure’s score is how far that percentile sits from the median (0 in the middle, 0.5 at either end), and the highest score leads if it is above 0.25, outside the middle half of the group. Scores within 0.03 of each other are a tie, broken in this order: votes against the party majority, kinds of statement, ideology, roll calls missed, small donations, in-state money, legislation, agreement, extreme labels, receipts.
A measure counts only with at least 200 statements, 100 roll calls or 5 sponsored bills behind it and a peer group of at least 10. Two things never lead: high party unity or attendance, where most members sit, and a high rate of a kind of statement backed by fewer than 10 statements. When nothing qualifies, the headline is a neutral fact instead: statements classified, or years in office. The wording always names the direction (“in the bottom 5% of …”, “votes against the majority of …”).
Identifiers
- Profile id
- da65a738-37c7-41c1-8cd4-abae65ef0167
- Open States
- ocd-person/da65a738-37c7-41c1-8cd4-abae65ef0167
Bulk files with the same data for every official:
Freshness of this profile’s data
- What politicians sayOct 27, 20261 days agoMembers of Congress: tweets since 2017; press releases, newsletters and floor speeches since 2022. State legislators: tweets since May 2024. Governors: tweets since January 2025. Labels from an LLM classifier.
- Roll calls (state)Oct 21, 20267 days agoOpen States floor roll calls, 2019 on (none for AK and MO).
- Bills (state)Oct 28, 2026todayOpen States bills and sponsors, 2019 on; stages from roll calls.
- Campaign money (state)no dateState campaign-finance agencies, 2019 on; aggregates only.
- Ideology (CSIP)Oct 25, 20263 days agoCommon-Space Ideal Points (CSIP), current validated run.
- WebsitesOct 25, 20263 days agoWeekly crawls of federal sites since April 2026; monthly state crawls since June 2026.
- State floor speechesOct 21, 20267 days agoState floor speech turns (published transcripts and captions), 2020 on; not LLM-classified.
How the measures work
- What politicians say
- Every post, press release, newsletter and congressional floor speech is read by a language model and marked for personal attacks, policy criticism, policy discussion, bipartisanship and credit claiming. A statement can be in several. Rates are shares of statements in the window. The methods paper.
- Extreme labels
- A statement has an extreme label when it calls a politician, party or policy “far left”, “far right”, “MAGA”, “extreme”, “radical”, “woke”, “fascist” or “communist”. The target is who the label is aimed at.
- Policy areas and agreement
- Statements and bills share 25 Congressional Research Service policy areas (state bills are assigned by a language model). Agreement is 1 − Jensen–Shannon distance between the two distributions, shown with at least 20 policy statements and 5 bills.
- Ideology (CSIP)
- Common-Space Ideal Points place federal and state officials on one left–right scale, estimated jointly from roll calls, campaign contributions and the text of statements, with standard errors. Only a validated run is shown. The methods paper.
- Campaign money
- Campaigns report by name only donors who give more than $200 in a cycle; smaller gifts are reported as one total. Federal totals and the small-donor share come from the FEC’s financial summaries of each campaign committee. Donor counts, donor states, employers and occupations cover itemized donors only. State filings report no small-gift totals, so state figures are itemized only. The lab never publishes donor names.
- Votes and key votes
- Attendance, party unity and the count of votes against the majority of an official’s own party come from roll calls (Voteview for Congress, chamber records for the states). Key votes are final-passage or override votes that became law, were decided by under 10%, saw at least 10% of a party vote against its majority, or concerned one of the 25 bills most mentioned in officials’ statements.
- Peers and ranks
- Comparisons are with the same party, chamber and level (for example House Democrats); state legislators are compared within their state and chamber for votes. Every comparison names its group. Rank 1 is the highest value in the group; tied values share the average of their ranks, and the percentile is the share of the group below the value, ties counting half.
America’s Political Pulse · Polarization Research Lab