Political Ads

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Are you as sick of political ads as I am? How many positive versus negative ads are running in your area? Who’s being the most negative? In my area, the incumbent Baron Hill (D) went negative immediately. Instead of attacking his opponent, why doesn’t he run on his voting record or be more upfront about his funding sources?

I believe politicians should run on their merits and their voting record. They should tell voters where their money came from and why they voted the way that they did on any particular issue. After all, that’s the job that “we the people” expect them to do!

We are fortunate to have the right to vote. As voters, we should be informed and not be swayed by political advertising or special interest pressures. Unfortunately, it’s getting more and more difficult to find factual information.

I’m giving you a list of non-partisan websites and non-profits whose sole purpose is to track the votes made by each member of Congress and to let you know who is giving them money. I strongly encourage each of you to visit these sites and to look up each of your representatives before the November election.

Open Congress

Open Congress is a free site that is not-for-profit and non-partisan with a mission to make Congress more transparent and to encourage civic engagement. They have an easy search function that allows you to find your representatives and senators and track their voting tendencies.

Follow the Money at Open Secrets

Federal Election law requires candidates to report sources and amounts of funding. These records are available for inspection by the public, but it requires a great deal of data analysis to make sense of any of them. Thank goodness for Open Secrets. These folks take those reports and turn them into meaningful visualizations.