Consult the Project Vote Smart website (www.vote-smart.org) and provide the following information about the member of the US House of Representatives who represents the district where you receive official university documents (or where you are registered to vote, if different). In order to obtain the answers to these questions, you will need to follow the "Officials" link, then click on "US Congress", and determine who your representative is (there are a number of ways to do this). Once you get to your representative's page, links are provided for biographical information, issue positions, campaign finances, special interest group evaluations, and voting record.
1. The 9-digit zip code for the area where you are registered, or where you receive mail if you are not registered
2. The representative's name
3. The state and district within the state that he/she represents
4. His/her political affiliation
5. Contact information for at least one of the representative's offices, whether in DC or the district eg: address, phone number, email
6. The committees he/she serves on in the current (111th) Congress
(you may or may not need to access the candidate's individual website
in order to
determine this info).
7. How the representative voted on the following pieces of legislation:
a. (Health Issues) HR 3962: To provide affordable, quality health
care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending,
and for other purposes (vote taken
November 7, 2009).
b. (Gun Issues) HR HR 627: Vote to allow visitors to possess firearms on federal public land (vote taken on May 20, 2009)
8. What is the representative's position regarding abortion?
(This can
be determined either from the "Issue Positions" link-(Abortion Issues) if the candidate responded to the
Vote Smart survey, or from
the representative's vote on
H Amdt 509 to HR 3962: an amendment to prohibit federal funds for
abortion services in the public option of the proposed health care
reform bill. (vote taken
on
November 7, 2009).
9. a. How much money does this report indicate
your representative has on hand at this point in the 2010 election cycle (click on 2010 in the Select cycle and
data to include box)?
Please include the date this information was last reported. To
obtain this information, follow the Vote-Smart link to OpenSecrets.org
to the campaign finance data for
your representative.
b. How much has your representative received
in PAC (political
action
committee) contributions as of the latest reporting of financial
information in the 2010
election cycle (click on 2010
in the Select cycle and data to include box). (Note:
some members of Congress do not accept any funds from PACs.)
10. a. What percentage of the vote did your
representative obtain in the 2008 election ?(follow the Elections tab to 2008 election information to obtain
this percentage)
b. Based solely
on the figure you obtained in 10a (regarding margin of victory in the
last election) and the figure you obtained in 9a (regarding the
candidate's current war chest), do you expect that your representative
will win reelection in 2010 if he/she chooses to run for another
term? Why or why not?
11. What does this assignment show you about how difficult or how
easy
it is to be an informed citizen today?
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