Staying On Top of Congress’ Shenanigans
A host of online tools help us track Congressional voting records and hold members of Congress accountable to those who elected them. Learn how these tools work and how others are using them effectively. Joshua Grossman of Progressive Punch and the new Progressive Messenger will discuss how tracking tools are being used by bloggers and to do opposition research on incumbents. We'll also look at how other information sources—including Open Secrets, Campaign Money Line, MAPLight and Project VoteSmart—complement each other with data for users who want to know if and how their representatives are really representing them.
Joshua Grossman is a social entrepreneur who has created many political and business projects. He’s the founder of the web’s most encompassing searchable database of Congressional voting records, ProgressivePunch.org which provides expert analysis of Congressional votes and algorithm based scoring of how progressive members of Congress are. Joshua also runs a feisty 527, Progressive Kick, which informs citizens of how they’re being damaged by right-wing members of Congress, Republicans & Democrats alike. He’s memorized/tracked the names, voting records & political state/district demography of all 535 members of Congress since he was thirteen years old and is an occasional expert commentator on Air America Radio andFiveThirtyEight.com blogger. Joshua’s also co-founded America’s largest eco-friendly paper company, New Leaf Paper.
