Staying On Top of Congress’ Shenanigans
This workshop will discuss online tools for tracking Congressional voting records and using these tools to hold members of Congress accountable through various feedback mechanisms. Audience members will learn about how these tools work, who already is using them and how effective they are in reaching members of Congress. The session will also include a discussion of sites and sources of information, including websites such as Open Secrets, Campaign Money Line, MAPLight and Project VoteSmart & Progressive Punch.
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.
