Please follow directions strictly and use sources only on files.Intro to U.S. Politics, Spring 2022
Professor Carolyn Cocca
Computer Assignment: Who Are My Legislators?

*****This assignment is due Monday, April 11 by 9am on Blackboard*****
Please read through this page and the next page before you start.

The assignment is to assess your 6 legislative representatives by creating a 1-page ?fact sheet? for each one.
–Your national representatives in the U.S. Senate (2 people) and in the U.S. House of Representatives (1 person),
–Your state representatives in the New York State Senate (1 person) and in the New York State Assembly (1 person), and
–Your local representative (1 person) in either the New York City Council, or the Nassau County Legislature, or the Suffolk County Legislature, or other county legislature, depending on where you live.

Each of the six fact sheets should answer the following 4 questions (you can list #1-3; #4 should be a paragraph).

1)Name and political party of the legislator.

2)Bills sponsored, preferably ones that became laws. Briefly describe at least three, in your own words.

——-SOURCES for #1 and #2: For your representatives? name, party, and accomplishments, use the following websites.
You will have to type in your address for all of them except the U.S. Senate?for that, just look for the two people who represent all of NYS. So do all five below on the left, and only one of those on the right, depending on where you live:

National Representatives 1 and 2: U.S. Senate
http://www.senate.gov/

National Representative 3: U.S. House of Reps.
http://www.house.gov/representatives/

State Representative 1: NYS Senate
http://www.nysenate.gov/

State Representative 2: NYS Assembly
http://assembly.state.ny.us/

Local Representative: one of the below, depending on where you live (if not one of these, google your county legislature):

Nassau County Government
https://www.nassaucountyny.gov/504/Legislators

Suffolk County Government
https://www.scnylegislature.us/148/Legislators

NYC Council

3)Interest groups. Which interest groups rate his or her voting record on particular issues very high, or very low?

——–SOURCE for #3: Search the representative?s name, and then the ?ratings? tab here: www.vote-smart.org. You should find all of them except your local legislator, so just leave their #3 blank.
–Pick at least three different issues that you care about; don?t just do the first 3 issues listed. What do specific groups? ratings (especially when they?re very high or very low) tell you about the representative?s beliefs about the issues the group cares about? For instance, if rated highly by an anti-abortion group, the representative is anti-abortion. If rated very low by an environmental group, the representative probably doesn’t vote for conservation, etc. Make sure you state what the rating means about the person; don?t just list the number or letter grade for them.

4)Your assessment. Think about what you?ve listed for #1-3, then address all four of the below in a short paragraph:
–Are they doing a good job (for you, your community, state, country)? If so, how, and if not, why not?
–State whether the person is of the same party as that which controls the legislature the person is in, whether it?s the US House of Representatives, the NYS Senate, whichever. If so, they should have accomplished more. If not, then they probably haven?t accomplished as much. Evaluate them at least partly on this basis.
–Consider which party you feel represents you better overall. Is this representative from that party or not?
–Then decide, would you vote for this representative in the next election? Why or why not?

Dos and Don?ts:

DO capitalize Congress, Senate, Assembly, etc. Capitalize Democrat and Republican and names of other parties. Make sure you spell legislators? names correctly. Proofread your paper before handing it in. I will take off points for errors of capitalization, punctuation, etc.

Do not copy and paste information from without citing the source. This is plagiarism, and will earn you an F. If you use a direct quote, use quotation marks and cite the source/website in parentheses at the end of the sentence.

Do not write that he or she ?works hard for the district? or ?works for all New Yorkers? or some equivalent. They all say this, and not one of them does it. If you repeat this kind of uncritical language, I will assume you have put minimal effort into this assignment and have not reflected on the material in front of you.

Do not mistake the senate majority leader, or the speaker of the assembly, for your representative because their picture is on the front page of the website on page one.
You will have to put in your zip code, or full street address and zip code, to find your specific representatives.

Do not research any executives?no mayor, no county executive, no governor. This assignment is about legislators. Again, you will have to put in your zip code or address to find your representatives.

DO be critical, be analytical, and look at the evidence of what they?ve really done. There is a difference between someone who ?fights hard? for, say, tax cuts; someone who someone who ?sponsored a bill? for tax cuts;? and someone who ?authored last year?s tax cut law.? These are different levels of work and success?look for these kinds of key words when you are citing their accomplishments.

Troubleshooting:

1) You came up with more than one person when you typed in your zip code. You do not have more than one assemblyperson, more than one county legislator, etc. If this happens, it means your zip code is split between representatives. In this case, you will have to look up the information for whichever names you are given, and determine which one represents you by seeing which towns or communities they say they represent. [Or, it might let you do your zip plus four. To find out your zip code ?plus 4,? go to www.usps.gov, the postal service website.] Generally, their website will list the neighborhoods they represent; if not, look at the district map and try to find your town or street; if not, look at the address of his or her district office. The one whose office is closest to your home is probably your representative.

2) You can?t find the information on the person?s website. First, did you click on all possible tabs on the person?s site? What may be in someone?s ?biography? on one site might be in someone else?s ?services? link. Second, check the news organizations? websites listed under #4 about the campaign. Third, google the person?s name in quotes and try to find an article from a paper, a press release, something like that. You will find something.

3) The person who should be your legislator has resigned because they?ve been arrested for something.
This is not that uncommon in New York, sadly. See if you can find out what happened and if they?re being replaced.