How to Research a Dirty Politician By WIKIHOW
After reading this article you will able to know enough to make an empowered judgment on your national representative in congress, the senate, and also the president. You will be able to find who is funding their campaign, major legislative accomplishment and which bill they have sponsored and co-sponsored. You will able to see which way they vote on every bill. You will be able to find out major public relations disasters, and a general background on them before they were elected.
Steps
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1
Avoid believing a politician without questioning: They may leave out the truth, use ambiguous statements, or generally say things that mislead their constituents to get their vote.
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2
For just a rough sketch of your representative and senator go to Vote Smart and type in your zip code. It shows their major legislative accomplishments.
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3
Follow the money. The website Open Secrets is very user friendly for showing every dollar they have raised for their campaign. Click on the button “politicians and elections” then “congress” then “list by state” and you can find your Representative. It will give a good ball park summary of who is giving them money (e.g. Obama’s top 2 contributor: University of California…..$1,591,395 & Goldman Sachs $994,795).
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4
Go to Open Congress at the top of page click on button that says “representatives” or senator”. This will give you everything they have voted on in the current session of congress. And their government website along with other statics. You can also go to On The Issues to find a pre-made list of your representative’s votes by the issue and more. It is very user friendly.
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5
Go to the legislators last name at the “dot gov” website: lastname.senate.gov or lastname.house.gov (e.g. ________.senate.gov — or ________.house.gov). Go to government website just given. This website is all polished, it will give you their claim position and what they stand for. It will also give you background information and allow you to compare his or her voting record with his her claimed position on the issue. You can generally find background information i.e. schooling, career before elected and other stuff that looks good about them. Any other question you have you can ask them as there should be contact information on the page.
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Put it all together and you a very detailed blueprint of how your representative really stands so you don’t have to waste your time listening to their spin. Why even listen to them at all with this information? Actions (and campaign contributions) can now speak louder than words.
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