Politics

Tracking Retirements, Tracking Races

By Sunlight Foundation & Participatory Politics Foundation

As Donny has noted, there have been a number of retirement announcements this week. That must mean it’s an election year. Now, we like to think that OpenCongress is an incredible resource for citizens keeping track of their lawmakers at work. You can use the site to track legislation and issues, compare the voting records of your elected officials, and much more. And while we’re not going to get into the mud when campaign season rolls around, I do want to point out two OpenCongress resources that will help you keep track of the 2010 elections.

The first is something we’ve mentioned before: The RaceTracker Project, which we operate with our partners at the Swing State Project. We’re pooling the work of citizens and bloggers across the country to keep tabs on every single federal campaign in the country. We’re also honing in on the races for governorships as well. Everybody and anybody running for the U.S. House or Senate, and those seeking to become their state’s chief executive, has or will have a profile page on the OpenCongress Wiki. The project is also tacking on fundraising numbers (provided by our friends at the Center for Responsive Politics), so you can see which candidates are raking in the most dough.

Coupled with the RaceTracker project, the OpenCongress Wiki lists the Member of Congress who won’t be returning for the 112th Congress. Whether seeking other office, resigning for personal reasons or just simply retiring, we’ve already identified 43 members whose careers will change, in addition to the Sen. Edward Kennedy, who passed away in 2009.

Of course, as part of the OpenCongress Wiki, you can contribute to both resources. All you need is an account (which is free ? sign up here). Contributing to the RaceTracker project is incredibly easy: all you need is the name of a candidate, and a link to a source showing that the person is running, dropped out, etc. If you have any questions, let us know and we’ll walk you through the editing process.

As the country moves further and further into the 2010 election season, with your help, we’ll continue to update both resources to provide the latest electoral picture available.

Full post as published by Open Congress on January 07, 2010 (boomark / email).