Q&A Of The Day – How To Track The Votes Of Your State Legislators
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
Parler & Twitter: @brianmuddradio
Today’s entry: Hey Brian other than the state’s website, which I’ve found hard to navigate, is there a good place to go to track the votes of state representatives and senators? I know there are sites that track votes in congress, but I haven’t found one that’s easy to use for state officials.
Bottom Line: I love hearing this. My theme of 2020 was that every election has consequences and it’s often those closest to us geographically which have the biggest impact on our daily lives. That principal has never been more apparent than during the pandemic. It’s my hope that as the pandemic ends, we continue to place as much emphasis on local governance as we have over the past year. To answer your question, my preferred site for monitoring state officials is BillTrack50.Com. While it has premium features you can pay for, it’s free to track all elected officials, including an easy to use tab showing votes on all legislation with links to the bills. It also provides tabs to see all legislation sponsored by each official, what committees they sit on, contact information, staffers with their contact information and even a comprehensive bio.
Mike Caruso is my state representative, so I’ll use his BillTrack50 info as an example. Caruso sits on four committees and sponsored 67 bills in this year’s session - several of which didn’t receive media attention but are specific to the city where I live. 12 of Caruso’s bills have passed. His 18% pass rate to date is about double the effectiveness of the average legislator with about a 9% pass rate. Mike has a District Secretary and Legislative Assistant and are accessible by email and phone. As for the bio, there’s little detail left unmentioned. Consider, for example, this fun fact. Mike Caruso was the 2017 National Men’s IV Barefoot Water-Skiing Silver Medalist.
You’d mentioned you’d found sites for tracking congress, which is great, though I’d recommend you check out BillTrack50 for congressional representatives as well. It’s awesome you’re getting engaged and becoming more informed. Pass it on & keep it going.
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