PROJECT VOTE SMART
Honorary Founders
Jimmy Carter
Fmr U. S. President
Gerald Ford
Fmr U. S. President RELEASE DATE: FOR INFORMATION:
George McGovern September 23, 2010 Carly Griffin (406) 859-8683
Fmr U. S. Senator
Barry Goldwater media@votesmart.org
Fmr U. S. Senator
Geraldine Ferraro
Fmr U. S. Representative
Michael Dukakis VoteEasy Exposes Louisiana Candidates’ Issue Positions
Fmr Governor
Bill Frist
Fmr U. S. Senator
Bill Frenzel Project Vote Smart’s Great Divide Ranch (September 23, 2010)— Louisiana’s 2010
Fmr U. S. Representative
Lucy Wilson Benson
Political Courage Test results released today for congressional candidates show only
Fmr Pres., Nat’l League thirty-five percent (35%) of candidates were willing to tell voters where they stand on
of Women Voters
John Sununu
the key issues facing the nation, which is now the lowest response rate since 1994 for
Fmr U. S. Senator the state.
Charles Mathias
Fmr U. S. Senator
Edward Brooke To counter this unwillingness of candidates to demonstrate political courage in their
Fmr U. S. Senator
Barbara Lee campaigns, Project Vote Smart has launched VoteEasy (www.voteeasy.org), a
U. S. Representative
Claudine Schneider
powerful, interactive tool for voters.
Fmr U. S. Representative
Kenneth Adelman
Dir., US Arms Ctrl & VoteEasy gives voters an instant visual confirmation on which congressional
Disarmament Agency, candidates agree with their own positions on the major issues facing the nation.
Reagan Admin
Peggy Lampl
Fmr Exec. Dir., Nat’l
League of Women Voters
Unknown to the candidates, over the past year Project Vote Smart has applied
William Lacy Clay, Jr. thousands of research hours to examine the factual records of each congressional
U. S. Representative
Irene Natividad candidate on twelve major issues facing the nation. Those detailed studies are now used
Fmr Pres, Nat’l in VoteEasy to answer the 2010 Political Courage Test questions for candidates who
Women’s Political Caucus
Pat Schroeder will not answer the issue questions themselves. Each response is anchored in the
Fmr U. S. Representative
Gordon H. Smith
candidate’s own words and public records and each candidate has been encouraged to
Fmr U. S. Senator change any answer provided by Project Vote Smart. (See Louisiana Congressional
Adelaide E. Kimball
Historian
Candidates’ Test Results)
William Clinger
Fmr U. S. Representative
Jessica Arrigoni “VoteEasy is the future—the cutting edge of technology applied to the people’s need to
Board Chair, know their candidates,” said Richard Kimball, Project Vote Smart President. “It
Project Vote Smart
William Proxmire converts hours of research time into just seconds. Regardless of how difficult
Fmr U. S. Senator
John Hagelin
candidates make it for citizens to acquire this essential information, tolerance of
Fmr Pres. Candidate, political abuse and manipulation is no longer a voter’s only option.” Kimball says
Natural Law Party
Mary Dent Crisp VoteEasy will be installed for all fifty states before Election Day, November 2nd.
Fmr Co-Chair, Nat’l
Republican Party
Newt Gingrich The 2010 Political Courage Test results for Louisiana congressional candidates are
Fmr U. S. Representative available here. Candidate answers are always available on Project Vote Smart's website,
Sonia Jarvis
Fmr Exec. Dir., Nat’l through the Voter’s Research Hotline (1-888-VOTE SMART), or now by using VoteEasy
Coalition on Black Voter (www.voteeasy.org).
Participation
Brent Steel
Political Scientist
Kyle Dell
About VoteEasy: An interactive tool that saves voters hours of research time. It
Political Scientist combines thousands of hours of research on candidates and key issues by Project Vote
Richard Kimball
President, Smart staff with cutting edge interactive data visualizations created by
Project Vote Smart
(and 30,000 other Americans) (Continued)
PROJECT VOTE SMART
One Common Ground • Philipsburg, MT 59858-9767
1133 E Helen Street ▪ Tucson, AZ 85719
Tel: 1-406-859-VOTE (1-406-859-8683) • Fax: 1-406-859-8680
Hotline: 1-888-VOTE-SMART (1-888-868-3762) • Website: www.votesmart.org
Periscopic, one of the nation’s most prominent information visualization companies.
The data in VoteEasy is a combination of responses to the Political Courage Test
directly from congressional candidates and the information compiled by Project Vote
Smart researchers on twelve key issues: Abortion, Afghanistan, Crime, Economy,
Education, Environment, Guns, Health Care, Immigration, Social Issues, Social
Security, and Taxes. Citizens can simply type in their zip codes to answer the same
questions their own candidates were asked, and VoteEasy immediately displays on
shifting campaign yard signs the candidate most like them, with the option to drill
deeper into the details of the candidates’ records.
About the Political Courage Test: The Political Courage Test is Project Vote
Smart’s flagship program. It asks all candidates one central question: “Are you
willing to tell citizens where you stand on the issues you may face if elected?”
Candidates who reply “yes” are asked to address some key issues that are both
consistently of top concern to the American people and also likely to come up in the
next legislative session. Test questions have been created designed and drafted by
more than 200 of the nation’s most prominent political scientists, journalists, and
leaders of the major and third political parties. Candidates’ Political Courage is
measured by the number of top issues they are willing to address on the test, whether
by choosing to support or oppose carefully-researched policy options, or by
answering the questions in their own words.
About Project Vote Smart: Founded by national leaders such as Jimmy Carter and
Gerald Ford, Michael Dukakis and Newt Gingrich, Vote Smart researches the voting
records, backgrounds, issue positions, campaign contributions, interest group
ratings, and public statements of more than 40,000 candidates and elected officials.
This information, as well as ballot measures and voter registration information is
available through www.votesmart.org, the Voter’s Research Hotline (1-888-VOTE
SMART), free publications (U.S. Government Owner’s Manual), and the new
VoteEasy interactive application. Project Vote Smart, inaugurated in 1992, is funded
entirely by foundation grants and individual contributions.
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