My main area of expertise is voters and voting behaviour. Part of the problem for voters is that they often don't have information. Voters need parties as a shortcut. We need you to tell us what you think, because that helps us figure out what we think.
It's perfectly okay to take a partisan stance or even take a stance within the party that conflicts with the party, because then as voters we're getting information that we need to make decisions. I think that having a multi-partisan committee is important, and voters need to know what each of you thinks about things, and especially what your party leaders think about things, in order to make choices.