Core Objective Writing Assignment

Your assignment must meet all of the following criteria:

1. Includes your name and student ID number in the header
2. Be word processed
3. Be double-spaced
4. Be submitted electronically via eCampus
5. Have a minimum length of 1000 words (excluding cited text/direct
   quotations & Works Cited/bibliographic info) saved and submitted as a
   .doc or .docx file
6. Be presented in paragraph format featuring complete sentences
7. Includes at least two formal citations from a credible
   journalistic source, government website, book, or peer reviewed journal
   utilizing APA formatting (Your textbook can be used as a supplementary
   source, but it would not count towards this requirement.)
8. Follow all of the conventions and rules of Standard Written English

For this writing assignment you will be required to closely follow the instructions.

Do not skip steps!!!!!

The purpose of this assignment is to allow you to identify one of
your elected federal-level legislative representatives and the issues
they have prioritized as your representative, then compare the work they
are doing with your personal political beliefs. Do you care about the
same issues that they do? This assignment will be scored out of 100
points, and will constitute 10% of your final grade in the class.

Step 1: Go to https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members to
input your address and determine who your elected federal-level
legislative representatives are. You must choose to write on either your
member of the US House of Representatives or one of your members of the
US Senate.

Step 2: After selecting one of those federal-level legislators,
click on his/her name. On that next page, you will find varied
information about your legislator, including links to other websites you
can use for research, as well as the link to his/her official website,
which is found on the upper-right of the page.

Step 3: Go to http://votesmart.org/interest-groups#.VklL93bnvIU to
locate an interest group that lobbies on behalf of an issue you care
about. This can be any issue, from abortion to tax relief, as long as it
is an issue that interests you. Navigate on the page to find an issue
category (like “Campaign Finance and Elections” or “Foreign Aid”) that
you are interested in. Then, under that category heading, select one of
the particular groups in that category to research. {Those particular
groups are located on the far right under the “SIG Name” heading.}

Step 4: Respond to the following list of questions in sequential
order. Each question should be answered completely and numbered
accordingly in separate paragraphs.

NOTE: This is not a position paper. You do not need to offer or
support a thesis, but your answers are required to be submitted in
complete sentences, and in your own words. DO NOT copy and paste from
any of the websites you will utilize during this assignment. Part of the
challenge of this type of assignment is to strengthen your ability to
discuss political issues using your unique ‘voice’.

Question 1: What is the name of your chosen federal-level legislator
and what is his/her office? What is his/her race/ethnicity, gender,
and religious affiliation? What political party does s/he belong to?
Does s/he share your preferred party preference? How long has s/he been
in office?

Question 2: On the www.govtrack.us website for your legislator,
there will be a section labeled “Bills Sponsored”. Click on “View All”
to see a list of that legislator’s list of sponsored legislation. Select
and describe two pieces of legislation sponsored by your legislator
during the most recent regular legislative session. (If your legislator
has not sponsored a bill before, you should describe his/her two most
recent co-sponsored bills).

Question 3: Compare and contrast the mission and goals of your
chosen interest group with the political beliefs and legislative
priorities of your chosen legislator, providing AT LEAST two specific examples of either agreement or disagreement between them. Has your chosen interest group endorsed your elected legislator?

Question 4: Why do you think your chosen legislator was able to win
their most immediately recent election? In order to answer this
question, you must include a description of the demographic makeup of
your district (if you are writing about your US House member) or state
(if you are writing about your US Senator). That demographic makeup
should include race/ethnicity, gender, and the level of voting turnout.
Was your legislator an incumbent officeholder prior to his/her most
recent election, and was this a factor in getting elected? This
information could be located on the web page of your chosen legislator,
but might need to be gathered via other appropriate sources (see
requirements above regarding citation sources).

Question 5: Now that you have this information, (please
assume/pretend you are eligible to vote) are you more or less likely to
vote in the next election? Why or why not? Would you vote to keep this
legislator, or would you vote for his/her opponent?