As we continue to assess the concoction that will serve as the state budget for the next two years, a process in which the majority party, the Democrats, sought no input from Republicans, we turn to a more hopeful sign that bipartisan governance can have a future.

Richard Lugar was a man willing to work with the other party. The six-term Republican senator from Indiana served as the highly regarded chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, until his defeat in 2012 by a Tea Party candidate who attacked his willingness to seek bipartisan compromise, particularly in foreign policy. The tea partier then lost to a Democrat.

After leaving the Senate, Mr. Lugar, undaunted, founded the Lugar Center. It is devoted to proposing solutions to global problems through “thoughtful analysis and civil dialogue that facilitates bipartisan governance.”

To end what it calls “the destructive culture of hyper-partisanship” in Congress, the Center just released its Bipartisan Index, a survey ranking members of Congress on their “bipartisan activity or lack thereof.” The Index determined the most bipartisan legislators are both Republicans, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Rep. Peter King of New York.

Connecticut’s senators and representatives achieved rankings that ranged from quite respectable to mediocre to pathetic in their “bipartisanship or lack thereof.”

The good news for this region is that the most bipartisan/least partisan congressman among Connecticut’s all-Democratic delegation is the one closest to home, 2nd District Rep. Joe Courtney, ranking 108th out of 422 members. (Thirteen representatives — leaders and those not serving the full session — were not ranked.)

The most partisan is the 3rd District’s Rosa DeLauro, holder of the second safest seat, who ranks 396th, below Jim Himes of the 4th District, at 335th. These rankings and what they indicate — an unwillingness to compromise — make both members, especially the veteran Rep. DeLauro, virtually irrelevant in a Republican Congress.

The 5th District’s Elizabeth Esty didn’t quite make the middle of the pack in her first term, ranking 237th, but the 1st District’s John Larson, the dean of the state delegation whose district last went Republican in 1956, was surprisingly the state’s second most bipartisan member, ranking 153rd.

Rep. Courtney introduced nine bills in the 113th Congress and got three of them passed, not bad for a Democrat. But he also succeeded in getting provisions crucial to the district into essential defense and agriculture legislation, with achievements as varied as maintaining the two-a-year build rate for Virginia Class submarines and continuing rural development funding for eastern Connecticut dairy farmers.

His bipartisan efforts on military issues have established him as “one of the most effective legislative proponents of the nation’s undersea fleet,” in the view of Electric Boat President Jeffrey S. Geiger.

According to Govtrack.us, bills Rep. Courtney supported in the last Congress had 821 co-sponsors, another indication of his good relationships in both parties. In addition, Republicans introduced 38 percent of the 234 bills he co-sponsored and he worked with Republicans to block legislation considered harmful to the district.

Gary Rose, the head of the political science department at Sacred Heart University and a veteran observer of the state’s political scene, told the Connecticut Mirror that Rep. Courtney works well with Republican members and even though “he knows how to be partisan, he’s not a hyper-partisan. He’s not a (liberal) soldier in the tradition of Reps. Rosa DeLauro and John Larson.”

Nor is he as partisan as Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, breaking with them on several significant issues, including aid to Syrian rebels — the congressman saw it as necessary to counteract the spread of ISIS — and legislation that would have raised interest rates on Stafford college loans. The senators wanted a lower rate on these popular student loans. So did Rep. Courtney, but he was willing to compromise to at least avoid the higher rate, while they weren’t.

Both of the senators looked bad in the survey. Sen. Blumenthal was 73rd among the 98 senators ranked and Sen. Murphy worse, not far from the bottom in 85th place.

We would remind these partisan Democrats from out state delegation that a majority of Americans, including their Connecticut constituents, are tired of mindless partisanship and want to see more compromise. At the same time, we compliment Rep. Courtney for steering a moderate path and for demonstrating how a willingness to compromise and work with the other party can aid the people he serves.