How do you research your representatives in government?

Votesmart is a useful tool, but I don't believe anything is "non partisan" I have lived and worked in and around Washington, D.C. since the Carter Administration. I follow politics closely and have written about it for the past 7 tears on my website http://ewross.com. Not everyone has the time do this, however. They must rely on the media and other sources for the information they need. In my opinion, more important than a list of policy positions is assessing the character and personality of the individual politician. I loved working in the Reagan administration because I could predict what President Reagan would do on just about every issue. I understood who the man was and what he believed and I trusted his judgment. Bottom line, I had faith in him. How many politicians can you say that about today. Choosing who to vote for is most often, however, deciding on the lesser of two evils. Just remember what Will Rogers said about politicians during the 1932 presidential election. "The good thing about this election is that only one of the son of a bitches can win."

I use a lot of online resources and look to see what their goals are and their main ideals are. But I have also gone to town hall meetings- you can tell a lot about someone about how they dodge a question or how they respond to an question in general..

I have congressional votes emailed to me from Congress.org and use the site to research what is happening in legislative development, check up on my senators at http://www.senate.gov/
check up on other parts of the Federal Government at http://www.usa.gov/index.shtml