Someone is watching the politicians...

A bit creepy-sounding, but convenient for us, because now we can go to these websites run by non-partisan 'watchdog' groups, where we can read about what our elected officials have actually been up to!

Your federal Senators and Congressmen are supposed to be working for YOU. Are they doing their job? Find out!

Plural

• "Track bills, review legislation, research data & see how your representatives are voting." - Company marketing their AI-Powered Legislation Tracker and Stakeholder Collaboration tool, but free, single-user accounts available.

Represent

• "See what your representatives in Congress say and do." - From ProPublica (slighty left-leaning, per AllSides)

Seriously, don't feel like you shouldn't vote if you didn't keep up with every development the past few years, even though some people claim it's pointless to vote uninformed. You don't really need to do a lot of research, either - a  site like Ballotpedia will get you up to speed quickly!    So go VOTE - Young adults ARE the Future!

& Also

• Followthemoney.org -- Provides free access to federal and state level campaign contributions.  Data can also be accessed through an API or downloaded.
• OpenSecrets.org -- From the Center for Responsive Politics
• Sunlight Foundation -- Nonpartisan non-profit that advocates for open government.  Provides many tools and API (Application Programming Interface) for tracking money influencing Congress.
• Federal Election Commission's Data Catalog --  Find campaign finance information from the FEC.  Other areas of the site allow for chart creation, data on Super PACs, etc.
• LobbyView -- via MIT, allows tracking of lobby funds going back to the late 1990's for many organizations, companies, cities, etc.  Track by organization or bill number. Also provides access to lobbying disclosure forms.

The list above was adapted from:Tracking Congressional Issues by The Regents of the University of California , subject to a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

To get a better sense of what they're REALLY about, you can:

• Read Ballotpedia's Bio / Synopsis about them
• Put their name into RamSearch, then limit your results to news only, and see if they did anything really Bad (but newsworthy) before or after they decided to run for office
• Also check news and news magazine sources for any interviews the candidates may have recently given
• See if the organizations who have endorsed them align with your values (this of course also applies to people up for re-election; Ballotpedia and similar sites will have that information)
• Once they do officially declare their candidacy, non-partisan watchdog sites like Open Secrets will be gathering data on who - and what industries - are donating money to them.