Using Project  Vote Smart

STEP 1. CLICK on the link to Project Vote Smart to begin.

This may not be, or it may not look exactly like the Home Page of Project Vote Smart. Project Vote Smart has been altering their Home Page to make announcements, solicit workers, and solicit funds. If this is not the first page, then click on the link to go to Home Page.

STEP 2. CLICK on "Current Elected Officials" at the top of the page

STEP 3. Click on "Congress from the drop-down menu

STEP 4. Select "California" from the drop-down menu
and CLICK on "GO"

STEP 5. Select a Member of Congress

Using Project  Vote Smart
to Obtain Special Interest Group Ratings of Members of Congress

STEP 6. CLICK "Special Interest Groups"

STEP 7. Select a Special Interest Group catagory

Select one special interest group in this catagory and record the Special Interest Group rating for this Member of Congress (and all the other Members of Congress you are including in your study).

You can also find the data on campaign finance by using Project Vote Smart.

STEP 8. Under the Member's photo are links; CLICK on "Campaign Finance"

Another link will appear, CLICK on "Campaign Finance" again.

A window for this member of Congress will open at www.opensecrets.org (See Step 6 below).



Direction for Using The Center for Responsible Politics
to Obtain Campaign Finance Data


STEP 1: Go to "Links" on the Political Science 100 Web Page


STEP 2: Select "Members of Congress", and then select the 108th Congress--"list by state".


STEP 3: Scroll down to "California".
STEP 4: Click on the name of a Member of Congress.


STEP 4: Select the following information to put in a table on campaign finance or your paper:

  1. Total Receipts Collected: you will use this dollar amount to calculate the average cost to run for Congress from California.
  2. Source of Funds: report the percentage of funds collected from individuals and from Political Action Committees in a table to compare Democrats and Republicans.
  3. Source of PAC Contributions: report the percentage of PAC contributions from business PACs, labor PACs, and Ideological/Single Issue PACs in a single table to compare which PACs contribute to Democrats and which PACs contribute to Republicans.


STEP 5: Use this data to generate two tables:
  1. Percentage of Campaign Contributions from Individuals and PACs;
  2. Source of Campaign Contributions from PACs; and
  3. an average of the amount of contributions needed to run for Congress successfully from California.

The data on this page is for the 2004 election. This data is the most current information available for an entire election cycle (2003 to 2004).