POLITICIAN INVESTIGATION
What’s My Elected Official Been Doing?
Find Your Legislators
Votesmart.org
For a place to find all your federal and state officials including the President’s Cabinet (no czars listed) go to http://votesmart.org/. You’ll find a history of how each elected official has voted on important legislation. As soon as you reach votesmart.org, put your zip code on the ‘Find Your Elected Officials’ line and click ‘search’. You’ll find all the elected officials from judges to state-wide officials to the President and more. You can even learn about the incumbents’ challengers. On the right margin you can find the federal and Illinois key votes listed. Click on the bill and find out what the bill says and how each official voted on the bill. This site has even more info, you just have to start digging. Some of the bill results are out dated so make sure you check the date.
Mega Vote
If you would like to receive weekly e-mail updates on how your senator or congressman has voted on certain legislation, go to http://www.congress.org/congressorg/megavote/ and register. At the bottom of the page you will see just what to do to communicate with congress, write a letter to the media, plan a visit to capitol hill, learn what the different staff members do, learn all the steps that a bill goes through before it becomes a law, and subscribe to a weekly newsletter.
State Journal-Register
This is a Springfield, IL. newspaper. Go to http://www.sj-r.com/. Along the top of this web page you will see a row of links named ‘Home’, ‘News’, etc. Click on the ‘News’ link then on ‘State Government’. This takes you to the ‘Dome’. This link will give you the most current news from the state capitol… sometimes news only minutes old. Also on this page you’ll see a link to the “Search the Illinois State Salary Database”. You can find any Illinois state employee’s salary here including the governor, circuit judges, or highway workers and by county.
Illinois General Assembly Site
If you ever want to check on the status of a bill and how officials voted on it go to http://ilga.gov/. This site is tricky and requires some patience to find things. You will need to know the bill number in order to follow the bill’s progress. Bills that originate in the Senate begin with SB and a number, and bills originating in the House begin HB and a number. Bill numbers can be found in the State Journal-Register articles, the internet, or at Votesmart.
This is the way to track our federal government…..senators, congressmen, president, bills, laws, etc. at govtrack.us.
Opensecrets.org
Tracks money. Who gives what to whom? Follows earmarks, bills, contributions, etc. Go to: Open Secrets
For the Good of Illinois
A blog that identifies corruption in Illinois from Adam Andrzejewski. Go to: For the Good of Illinois
Open the Books
From the federal to state to local government, the Books are Open… Search salary, pension and spending databases by state. Go to: Open the Books
On The Issues
I happened upon this website that has a really great list of incumbent voting records. It tells a complete story of these officials’ record. You can look up federal senators or congressmen. If you are inclined to make voter guides for 2016, then this site is for you. http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/richard_durbin.htm
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