Six Websites to Learn About Political Candidates

I could vent for days about how the media chooses, or chooses not to, disseminate information and report the news. Everyone knows that when they turn on the news or read a news story they are only getting part of the story, that they are getting the part of the story that particular news outlet feels will get the most ratings or sell the most papers. Often times it is even sensationalized for shock effect.

This year we are expected to go out and vote for a president. It's not to far off that we are going to see election propaganda; the signs, newspaper and magazine adds, and commercials run on TV telling us who we should vote for and why. We are going to see Candidate A try and discredit Candidate B and vice versa. Is it more important that a candidate may have experimented with drugs 40 years ago or his or her voting record in congress? How do we get the information that we need to make an educated and informed choice?

Two words: The Internet.

The internet has made gathering information easier than ever. It has given us access to information that we couldn't necessarily gain easily in the past. The following websites can help answer many questions that you may have during the upcoming election, or if you just want to check on what your congress person is doing.

Campaign websites - The only problem with a campaign website is that only information that is going to be on there is what the candidates PR person thinks should be up there. What they want to draw attention to, what they are paying lip service to. That doesn't mean that this isn't a good place to start. These websites are invaluable sources of information. You can learn how to join or support the campaign of the candidate, how to contact the candidate, sometimes you can find press kits and press releases. Don't think that these things are just for the press. They are put up there for everyone to read. If they didn't want the general public to see the information it wouldn't be on the website.

GPO Access - This site is a catalog of published bills from congress. They can be downloaded in their entirety in PDF format to read.

Open Congress - This site allows for easy tracking of any bill or congress person. By creating a log in you can keep track of everything you want to right on their website as well as give feedback as to why you do or not support bills.

GovTacks.us - This site reports on what congress is doing. You can search by individual bills or congress persons. They recently started a non-partisan blog on the front page that gives some analysis on current legislative issues.

Open Secrets - If anyone were to ask me, I would say this is one of the best sites on the internet to find out anything you want to know about anyone in congress. You can pull up congressional voting records, who campaign funds have been taken from, where campaign funds are being spent and so much more. It takes a while to learn to navigate the site because there is so much on there, but the time spent is well worth it for the information that you can get.

Project Vote Smart - This site allows you to look at how the candidates have voted on various issues. Very easy to use.