How to Investigate Your Elected Officials [Politics]

With last week's Iowa Caucuses in the United States, we're starting the long haul to November's election day where we'll be inundated by hundreds of advertisements and speeches filled with all kinds of promises. But how do you know whether those promises will be kept, or what the your member of Congress is really about? The truth is, a candidate can tell you a lot more about what they're going to do via their actions and their associations than their advertisements and speeches. And thanks to the work of a lot of great watchdog groups, a lot of that information is now publicly available online.

So how do you get started digging underneath the rhetoric and into the good stuff?

First, let's figure out who all your representatives are. Project VoteSmart makes this easy just type in your zip code, and they'll tell you who all your representatives are from the state level on up. If you live in a relatively dense area, chances are you live in a five digit zip code that has more than one legislative district in it, so the chances are that you'll need to know your Zip+4? you can figure that out courtesy of the USPS.

Now that you know who your rep is, it's time to put on your private investigator hat on. Start local! ? but I think that's a much better place to start. Your local city council and state representatives impact your daily life far more frequently than your representative or even the president. If you live in California, Texas, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Maryland or Minnesota, you're really in luck, because OpenGovernment.org is pulling together a great website for you to see what's happening in your area. For everyone else, Google for your state's state legislative website, or if you're a developer, check out the Sunlight Foundation's OpenStates project, which has bulk data available for 44 states.

We're still a little behind with county and municipality votes and websites. But search for yours, you may have something useful out there. The most important thing about local candidates is that they're accessible. While you can (and should) try and meet with your federal representatives, sometimes the travel to Washington can be too burdensome. But local candidates are there and waiting for you to call them. Call their office, and ask for a meeting, and ask them what they're about. You'll be amazed at the reception you get.

There are two great tools for researching federal (President, Congress) office-holders: GovTrack.us and OpenCongress.org. If you live in the 7th Congressional District of Virginia, for instance, here's Eric Cantor's page in on GovTrack, and on OpenCongress. Take a look at the bills they've sponsored and co-sponsored, and what they've voted on, and see if they align with your issues. And if they don't ? well, you know what to do.

As important as the voting record is the company your member keeps. InfluenceExplorer.com, from the Sunlight Foundation is a great place to start. If you're interested in Ron Paul for instance, you can see how much money he's raised, as well as what his top Earmark requests are. Over on OpenSecrets.org you're able to see what industries have Ron Paul as a top recipient of money, and even sort donors by zip code. At the state level, the National Institute on Money in State Politics offers the same service on FollowTheMoney.org.

Another interesting thing to look at is how politicians invest their money. OpenSecrets also has the neat feature of being able to see the kinds of investments that your member of Congress makes ? they've catalogued each member of Congress' "Personal Financial Disclosure" form ? the form all high-level government employees have to fill out when they get their job. What's the top asset held by a member of Congress you ask? That'd be the Milwaukee Bucks, owned entirely by U.S. Senator Herb Kohl.

If you want to dig deeper, *all* of this data is generally a hard-working non-profit compiling and delivering government data in a usable format. The federal financial contribution stuff comes from fec.gov, laws come from Thomas.gov (which celebrates its 17th birthday this week), and state official information comes from elections, ethics, and secretaries of state websites across the country. With a little sleuthing, you can figure out whether or not your politicians are right for you and make a little more sense out of how your government works.

In 2012, don't just listen to what the candidates have to say, or even listen to what everybody else has to say about them. Part of a healthy information diet means getting closer to the source: watch what they do, instead. If you can, meet directly with them, too. In my 10 years working in Washington, I've yet to hear a scheduler complain that their member has too many meetings with their constituents. Book some travel to Washington (April is a great time to visit, for the Cherry Blossoms), meet with your member of Congress, and participate in democracy.

Photo remixed from Dirk Ercken/Shutterstock.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/OmLRtxIpZZw/how-to-investigate-your-elected-officials

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