1. Your elected officials.

An important aspect of civic engagement is knowing who is your voice in policy making, both in Congress and in your state capitol.  This assignment is to help you become familiar with those individuals, particularly important if the results of the election changed who represents you.

• To learn who represents you in the U.S. House of Representatives, visit the House of Representatives website Links to an external site.and enter your zip code. 
• Your U.S. Senators can be found hereLinks to an external site.. 
• Each state legislature site is a little different, but you should be able to get to the site with a search engine.  Just be sure you’re using a .gov site.  You can also find them from this siteLinks to an external site..  Once on your state legislature site, there is usually a tab or icon “Find your legislator.”  

Write a brief report to include the information listed below about your federal and state representatives.  Divide it clearly so you cover your Representative and Senators in U.S. Congress, and then your state elected officials. 

Report the following information about your legislators:

• Name, political party and number of terms served
• Were they recently elected/re-elected?   If so, who were their opponents and how might the election results impact their governing?
• Their age, gender, profession, and other characteristics you find notable
• Voting record on health-related bills
• Committee sub/committee membership
• Women and infant health issues important to him/her
• News-worthy quotes, blunders, or brilliant moves. You might provide a hyperlink to a particularly compelling news story that captures this person well.

There are many ways to get this information.  They include:

• Visiting their individual web sites
• Voting records can be found by visiting Vote SmartLinks to an external site. or GovTrackLinks to an external site..
• Your local newspaper may provide good coverage or go to national news sources.

If you’re comfortable, feel free to share your personal feelings about your legislators.  Do you feel comfortable having them represent you?  Do you believe they have your best interests at heart?

Please do NOT cut/paste sections from your elected official’s web site.  A particularly pithy or telling statement or two is fine (if properly cited), but otherwise please summarize in your own words – not their spin! 

Note:  You are not reporting on all your elected officials (the Governor, Secretary of State, Treasurer, etc.).  Those are important positions and I urge you to learn about everyone who is on your state ballot, but for this assignment, you are reporting only on those state officials that represent your district. 

 People to report on includes:

 New Jersey 3rd Congressional District – Andy Kim

 New Jersey is represented in the United States Senate by Democrats Cory Booker and Bob Menendez.

 7th Legislative District represented by state Senator Sen. Troy Singleton, 

Assembly members Assemblyman Herb Conaway and Assembly woman Carol A. Murphy