Global Solutions is off to the races - You can help

Want to know where your lawmakers stand on global issues?  As the 2010 midterm elections approach, Citizens for Global Solutions is rolling out our 2010 Congressional Report Card.  This report "grades" members of the Senate and House of Representatives on their record of support for CGS legislative priorities over the past several years, as well as highlighting additional work certain members of Congress have undertaken which has helped to advance the goals of CGS.  It is the only publication that rates Congress based on their global votes.

The 2010 Congressional Report Card focuses on ten Senate and eleven House rollcall votes which took place between 2007 and 2009 on issues which are of particular importance to CGS and its supporters.  These votes cover topics such as providing appropriate levels of funding for international and multilateral organizations; addressing climate change; prohibiting torture; and ensuring protection of human rights around the globe.  Each member of Congress was given a grade between an A+ and an F based on how frequently their votes aligned with CGS's positions on these issues.

Additionally, since not all the hard work of members of Congress is revealed solely through their records on roll call votes, CGS invited House and Senate offices to apply for "extra credit" by telling us about other work they have done on these and other issues that are CGS priorities.  This extra credit might come from making floor speeches, sponsoring legislation, or publishing op-eds on issues important to CGS.  Lawmakers must earn extra credit in order to receive the highest grade of A+.

Can you help out? CGS also send out a questionnaires that are used by Global Solutions PAC to evaluate candidates for endorsement.  It quearies candidates on a very wide variety of global issues. We are asking CGS members and anyone else interested to help out and send candidates in their state and district our questionnaire. Here's how:

1. Check if the candidates for your area (Senate or House) have have already returned the Questionnaire.
2. If they haven't, download the Candidate Questionnaire.
3. Email or snail mail the Questionnaire to the candidates in your area. Please feel free to contact Melissa Kaplan, CGS Government Relations Fellow, at mkaplan [at] globalsolutions.org for help in finding candidates' addresses.

I hope you can help make these great tools even more useful by distributing them and using them.

Don Kraus