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Two to three double-spaced typed pages.
In this exercise, you will assess how your representative in Congress presents him or herself to the public and then compare this image with an ostensibly objective view of the representative. We can evaluate candidates for office on many dimensions, party, ideology, many different issues, and personal factors such as experience, background, service, values and identifications. No single source tells us everything, but some may be more helpful than others. Start by going to the web site(s) of your member of Congress to see how he
or she present him or herself to constituents. (All
members have a web site as a member of Congress, and most have another
campaign web site.) What kind of an image is the member attempting to convey?
What information is provided to the constituents? Presumably, it is on
these factors that the member wants to be evaluated. For access to the
members’ congressional and campaign web sites, try the following
collections of web addresses: For a non-partisan look at your member, go to Project Vote Smart (http://www.vote-smart.org/). From there, look at the left sidebar under "Offices" and click on “Congress.” From here you can get information on your member on campaign finance, issue positions (if your member responded to the “NPAT” questionnaire), voting records, interest group evaluations, and political background information. Use this data to construct an alternative political profile of your representative in the House. Finally, compare and contrast the two views of your member. Would the voter have the same images from just the member’s own web site(s) as if he or she looked for the kind of information Project Vote Smart assembles? Is there information that either of these sources is ignoring? Why? What conclusions would you draw from this? This
page was last updated 9/13/06 |
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