From dstine@cisco.com Thu Aug 18 01:42:29 1994 To: chan@shell.portal.com Subject: [dsa@netcom.com (David S.A. Stine): Project Vote Smart (long)] Date: Thu, 18 Aug 94 01:42:12 PDT From: "David S.A. Stine" Jeff: 1. The stuff below sounds like a useful resource. It is always good to have background on the twerps above and beyond the A to F rating that the NRA boys give the Congress. These guys get their "gun control rating" from the yahoos at HCI. [...] dsa ------- Forwarded Message From: levine@blatz.cs.uwm.edu (Prof. L. P. Levine) Newsgroups: alt.politics.datahighway Subject: Project Vote Smart (long) Date: 11 Aug 1994 18:08:15 GMT Organization: University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Lines: 347 Distribution: world Message-ID: <32dpefINN81p@uwm.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: 129.89.2.6 I have just gotten an email message from "Project Vote Smart" a group with non partisan credentials that has mounted a gopher server publishing the facts about our congressional representatives. Most interesting is the evaluation of these people made by more than 30 action groups. The groups listed are: "AFL-CIO" "National Council of Senior Citizens" "American Conservative Union" "National Abortion Reproductive Rights Action League" "U.S. Chamber of Commerce" "League of Conservation Voters" "National Taxpayers Union" "Consumer Federation of America" "Public Citizen's Congress Watch" "National Federation of Independent Business" "NAACP" "American Civil Liberties Union" "National Women's Political Caucus" "Vietnam Veterans of America" "National Tax-Limitation Committee" "Leadership Conference on Civil Rights" "Children's Defense Fund" "Conservative Index" "American Federation of State County & Municipal Employees" "Citizens United for Rehabilition of Errants" "American Security Council" "National Housing Institute" "National Education Association" "National Farmers Organization" "National Association of Retired Federal Employees" "American Association of University Women" "Bread for the World" "National Farmers Union" "Communications Workers of America" "Christian Voice" I am a card carrying member of the "Project Vote Smart" organization founded under the auspices of folks like Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford. They say the following in their gopher server: This data is a small portion of that continuing effort. For more information on Project Vote Smart, call our toll free hotline at 1-800-622-SMART. What follows is their announcement. Everything seems to work except for some of the comma delimited material: > Subject: Project Voter Smart Electronic Access > > I am happy to announce that Project Vote Smart's Internet access is now > available! We can be directly accessed at gopher.neu.edu port 1112, > > i.e. gopher gopher.neu.edu 1112 > > Thanks for being so patient in waiting for this data to come online. It > isn't all finished yet, but over the next week or so I will be adding > more and more data. > > If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at this address > (pvs@neu.edu). > > Mike Krejci > Director, Computer Services > Project Vote Smart > pvs@neu.edu > 503-737-3780 The following is the information display from the gopher server and the sheet on Senator Feingold, as an example. There is a sheet on every congressional repreentative and there will be one on every party candidate when the primaries are over. First the discription: FROM THE 35,000 MEMBERS OF PROJECT VOTE SMART ... Hundreds of citizens are volunteering to make Project Vote Smart possible. Month after month they labor to assemble an enormous system of factual information on over 2,000 candidates who want to represent you. This Voter's Self-Defense System arms millions of Americans with the power of democracy's most awesome political weapon. Shattering the candidates' ability to manipulate and abuse them, through Project Vote Smart a source of accurate information is being put directly into the hands of the people. This data is a small portion of that continuing effort. For more information on Project Vote Smart, call our toll free hotline at 1-800-622-SMART. PROJECT VOTE SMART COMPONENTS Voter's Research Hotline Our volunteer researchers can tell you what your representatives or candidates are doing for you or to you: * their voting record in over 20 key issue areas * biographical details of their service in Congress * performance evaluations by 70 liberal to conservative organizaions * who has paid for their campaigns * their telephone numbers and mailing addresses * their past campaign position statements * and much, much more! TOLL-FREE TO ALL CITIZENS! 1-800-622-SMART National Political Awareness Test Project Vote Smart interns and volunteers interview all candidates for federal office. These interviews, covering 14 key issue areas, can be used to compare what the candidates say during the elections with what they do if they are elected. This information is available through our Research Hotline (1-800-622-SMART). Computer Access Computer access to Project Vote Smart data through Internet and bulletin board. * Internet: gopher gopher.neu.edu * Bulletin board: 503-737-3777 (14.4K N81) Manuals Voter's Self-Defense Manual U.S. Government Owner's Manual These manuals contain key issue summaries along with you candidates' or elected officials': * biographical background * campaign finances * performance evaluations by 15 competing liberal to conservative special interest groups. * position statements * local election offices * addresses and phone numbers * committee assignments Research Services Reporter's Resource Center Reporter's Source Book Tomorrow's News Research services are provided for journalists to check the accuracy of claims made by elected officials or candidates. The Reporter's Source Book is published to refer journalists to issue experts who can check the credibility of politicians' claims. The Source Book is used by over 10,000 political journalists and is provided free to the media. Tmorrow's News is a quarterly newsletter featuring articles, awards, seminars, and upcoming events of interest to political journalists. Internship Program Hundreds of student interns from throughout the country work and study at Project Vote Smart. Students working on the project, often with our scholarship assistance, have a unique opportunity to exmine the often harsh realities of today's political arena. For information call: 503-737-3760. YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE A MEMBER TO USE OUR SERVICES, BUT PLEASE... JOIN US IF YOU CAN +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | [ ] General $35 [ ] Sustaining $250 | | | | [ ] Supporting $100 [ ] Other _____________ | | | | | | All contributions are tax deductible. | | Please make all checks payable to Project Vote Smart. | | | | Name: _________________________________________________________________ | | | | Address: ______________________________________________________________ | | | | City: _________________________________________________________________ | | | | State: ___________ Zip: ____________________________________________ | | | | Phone (optional): _____________________________________________________ | | | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ WE PROTECT OUR MEMBERS. Project Vote Smart does not sell or allow anyone to use our membership list. Please send to: Project Vote Smart 129 NW Fourth St. #240 Corvallis, OR 97330 (503) 754-2746 *************** Next a report on Senator Feingold, as an example. PROJECT VOTE SMART Hundreds of citizens are volunteering to make Project Vote Smart possible. Month after month they labor to assemble an enormous system of factual information on over 2,000 candidates who want to represent you. This Voter's Self-Defense System arms millions of Americans with the power of democracy's most awesome political weapon. Shattering the candidates' ability to manipulate and abuse them, through Project Vote Smart a source of accurate information is being put directly into the hands of the people. This data is a small portion of that continuing effort. For more information on Project Vote Smart, call our toll free hotline at 1-800-622-SMART. =========================================================================== NAME: Feingold, Russell D. PARTY: Democrat STATE: Wisconsin CURRENT DISTRICT: S2 OFFICE SEEKING: [UP IN 98] =========================================================================== BIOGRAPHICAL DATA The following biographical data has been collected by our volunteer and student researchers. The challenger data was supplied to us by the candidate. If a challenger is missing some, or all, of thier biographical data it is because they have not returned our biographical questionaire. Please feel free to call our hotline for more information on this and other candidates. 1-800-622-SMART - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- GENDER: Male BIRTH DATE: 03/02/53 BIRTH CITY: HOME CITY: Middleton, WI DATE FIRST ELECTED: 11/03/92 DATE LAST ELECTED: 11/03/92 Year of Next Election: 1998 EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE: B.A. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1975; Rhodes Scholar, Oxford University, 1977; J.D., Harvard Law School, 1979 PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE (INCLUDES MILITARY EXPERIENCE): Attorney, Foley & Lardner, and LaFollette & Sinykin, both in Madison, WI, 1979-85 POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: Wis. Senate, 1983-93 WASHINGTON DC ADDRESS: 502 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 PHONE: (202) 224-5323 DISTRICT ADDRESS: 8383 Greenway Blvd. Middleton, WI 53562 PHONE: (608) 828-1200 FAX: =========================================================================== THE NPATs FOR THIS STATE HAVE NOT YET BEEN RELEASED IT WILL BE RELEASED 3 TO 5 WEEKS FOLLOWING THE STATE'S PRIMARY =========================================================================== PERFORMANCE EVALUATIONS These evaluations are in percentage form. They represent the percentage of time that the incumbent voted with that organization's preferred positions on a number of votes that they identified as key in their issue area. Remember, by definition, these ratings by special interest groups are biased. They do not represent a non-partisan stance. In addition, some groups select votes that tend to favor members of one political party over another, rather than selecting votes based solely on issue concerns. However, they can be invaluable in showing where an incumbent has stood on a series of votes over a year's time, especially when ratings by groups on all sides of an issue are compared. A final note: The clearest way to read these percentages is, "In [year], the XYZ organization gave Senator/Representative X an 80% rating. That means that on votes they identified as key in their issue area during that time period, he/she voted with the group's preferred position 80% of the time." The exception to this is the evaluation done by the National Taxpayers Union, which represents how often a representative or senator voted to decrease, or not increase, spending. - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Labor 1993 91 AFL-CIO Seniors 1993 100 National Council of Senior Citizens Conservative 1993 12 American Conservative Union Abortion 1993 100 National Abortion Reproductive Rights Action Leag Business 1993 0 U.S. Chamber of Commerce Environment 1993 94 League of Conservation Voters Taxes/Spending 1993 26 National Taxpayers Union Consumers 1993 80 Consumer Federation of America Business 1993 15 National Federation of Independent Business Civil Rights 1993 90 American Civil Liberties Union Conservative 1993 25 Conservative Index Labor 1993 100 American Federation of State, County & Municipal Education 1993 100 National Education Association Poverty 1993 78 Bread for the World Farm 1993 78 National Farmers Union Abortion 1993 0 National Right to Life Committee Gun Control 1985-93 100 Handgun Control, Inc Labor 1993 88 United Food & Commercial Workers Contractors 1993 0 Associated Builders & Contractors Liberal 1993 100 Americans for Democratic Action Labor 1993 92 American Federation of Government Employees Defense/Foreign 1993 92 Council for a Livable World Health 1993 100 American Public Health Association Social Policy 1993 100 Friends Committee on National Legislation Abortion 1993 0 National Committee for a Human Life Amendment Populist 1993 20 Liberty Lobby Business 1993 5 Business-Industry Political Action Committee Taxes/Spending 1993 30 Citizens Against Government Waste Education 1993-94 100 U.S. Student Association Social Policy 1993 100 Network Labor 1993 80 Transportation Communications Union Labor 1993 94 United Auto Workers Chr.Fam. Issues 1993 0 Christian Coalition Taxes/Spending 1993 58 Concord Coalition =========================================================================== VOTING RECORD SAMPLER The voting records are still be compiled. They should be available before August 19, 1994. =========================================================================== CAMPAIGN FINANCE The campaign finance information is still be compiled. It should be available before August 19, 1994. ------- End of Forwarded Message