Topic: Becoming an Informed Voter – Researching Your Congressional Delegation
The research paper has two steps. First, you will analyze the recent political background of your congressional district and your U.S. Representative. Second, you will analyze the recent political background of South Carolina and one of your U.S. Senators. Note that these are United States Representatives and Senators. Do not use members of your state legislature.
Use Biblical principals when answering all questions.
Begin by reviewing the presentation on “Becoming an Informed Voter.” If you have a newly elected representative who has not yet received interest group ratings, use the interest group ratings of a representative from a neighboring district. You may choose which senator to study; however, if one senator is newly elected and does not have interest group ratings, study the other one.
After reviewing the presentation, the first part will deal with your congressional district and representative; the second part will deal with South Carolina’s state and senator. As explained in the presentation, interest group scores may be found at Vote Smart. They may also be found in the interest group website – the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans for Democratic Action, American Conservative Union, and Conservative Coalition (or the Family Research Council) – or other cites which compile voting data.
A helpful source to find information for this paper is The Almanac of American Politics by Richard E. Cohen and James A. Barnes.
A minimum of six sources are required for this assignment. Wikipedia is an unacceptable source.
Address and elaborate on each of the following questions in paragraph form:
• What is the political history of your district and state for the past 25 years?
• How has your district and state voted in recent presidential and congressional elections?
• Can your district or state be considered to be leaning Republican or Democrat?
• Are the political parties relatively even, or does one party dominate the elections?
• Does your district have a long tradition of supporting one party, or has it been changing in recent years? Why?
• How did your representative and senator come to power? (Briefly describe their political backgrounds.)
• What are some bills that your representative and senator have sponsored or co-sponsored? How does this legislation align with biblical principles? Explain.
• How do the interest groups – ADA, ACLU, ACU, and CC (or FRC) – rate your representative and senator? These interest group ratings scores are required. (Note: If the Christian Coalition score is not available, you may substitute the Family Research Council score. Include the exact scores from each of these groups.)
• Based on these ratings, would you classify your representative and senator as conservative or liberal? Justify your answer.
• In your conclusion explain whether or not the representatives and senator you discussed reflect your values.
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