In this week's Wrap-Up, Vote Smart recaps the Senate confirmation of Brian Benczkowski as Assistant Attorney General, public statements on everything from the NATO summit to the recent nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, as well as the new addition of 85+ rating scorecards. Read it all and more, below!
MAJOR EVENTS FROM THE WEEK
NATO Summit
President Trump had lots to say at the NATO summit in Brussels. Read his statement after the summit HERE, and read reactions from your representatives on the summit, as well as other NATO-related Foreign Affairs issues HERE. Completion of Biographical Research
Vote Smart has completed full biographical research for ALL Congressional primary candidates. For these candidates, our researchers have entered and released 2,648 addresses and 14,709 web addresses. You can find these addresses in your candidate's Bio folder under Contact Information. Use the page linked HERE as an example.
Brian Benczkowski Confirmation
The Senate confirmed Brian Benczkowski in a nearly party-lines vote to be the Assistant Attorney General. Benczkowski's nomination has been controversial, due to alleged Russian ties. See how your senator voted HERE.
Brett Kavanaugh Nomination
Earlier this week, President Trump nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to take Justice Kennedy's seat on the Supreme Court. If you're interested in learning more about Judge Kavanaugh, check out his biographical information right HERE.
ELECTIONS: Endorsements: Vote Smart has released 12,000+ endorsements so far this year! See who is really backing your candidates HERE.
If you would like to see how your representatives or candidates are rated by Special Interest Groups, check out your candidate's ratings page, as shown by the example HERE. Ratings:
Vote Smart released 85+ ratings scorecards from state level interest groups this past week! They are all listed on the Interest Group page of the website as seen HERE.
You can filter these rating scorecards by both STATE AND CATEGORY, which allows you to easily find how interest groups are rating your representatives based on the subjects that matter to you.
Congressional Candidate Lists:
Vote Smart has released congressional candidate lists released for all 41 states that have released certified ballots for 2018 Primary Elections. These candidates are all found on the elections page of the website as searchable here.
All 49 states with Primary elections (Louisiana doesn't do Primaries) have released their candidate lists! Our researchers have completed full biographical research for all Congressional candidates in these races. These candidates are all found on the elections page of the website HERE.
OFFICIALS:
Public Statements
Vote Smart added 1,757 statements to its website this week! Find them all through targeted key-word searches.
Some newsworthy topics include: - Reactions from Congress to the Kavanaugh nomination - NATO - Russia - ICE
Key Votes: There were twelve key state votes, and only one Key Votes in Congress this week. Read all about the vote by following the bolded links below.
Brian Benczkowski was nominated to be Assistant Attorney General, and the Senate confirmed the nomination in a very close vote. See the PN 1402 Summary HERE!
UP NEXT:
Keep an eye out for these up-coming additions to Vote Smart!
This week, Vote Smart will be releasing 50+ ratings scorecards over the course of the week! These scorecards will include ratings for over 8,000 politicians! Keep an eye out to see how you representatives are being rated by special interest groups to see if they are really representing YOUR interests!
There is a significant break until the next round of Primary elections. The next one is August 7th, 2018. Vote Smart researchers and political scientists are currently testing Congressional candidates in August primary elections with the Political Courage Test. PCTs and Issue Position research will be for these candidates on Thursday, July 19th.
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