Project Vote Smart
Project Vote Smart (PVS) is a non-profit, non-partisan research organization that collects and distributes information on candidates for public office in the United States. It covers candidates and elected officials in six basic areas: background information, issue positions (via the Political Courage Test), voting records, campaign finances, interest group ratings, and speeches and public statements. This information is distributed via their web site, a toll-free phone number, and print publications. The president of the organization since its founding is Richard Kimball.
PVS also provides records of public statements, contact information for state and local election offices, polling place and absentee ballot information, ballot measure descriptions for each state (where applicable), links to federal and state government agencies, and links to political parties and issue organizations.
In 1992, 40 national leaders, including Barry Goldwater, John McCain, former U.S. Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, founded PVS. PVS does not accept financial contributions from lobbyists, governmental organizations, corporations, labor unions or other special interests. It is financed by donations from more than 45,000 members and through grants from philanthropic foundations, including the Carnegie, Ford, Knight and Revson foundations.
In addition to monetary donations, members donate their time as member interns for a two week stay at the ranch.
Four locations have housed PVS since its inception. Originally based at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, PVS established another office in 1994, at Northeastern University in Boston. In 1999, PVS established its headquarters and research center at the Great Divide Ranch, in the Rocky Mountains, near Philipsburg, Montana. And in 2006, PVS added a branch at The University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona.
In 2006, the Project’s Board unanimously voted founder and president Richard Kimball a bonus of $471,994 (33% of the Project Votes Smart’s annual budget in 2006), as well as a 300% increase in salary. The explanation provided for the bonus on the tax form was “This bonus was paid to compensate Richard Kimball for being the key employee and leading the organization for more than 10 years at a very low average salary between $25,000 and $35,000…Once the bonus was paid, Richard Kimball’s annual salary was raised to reflect the amount of effort being expended to run a national organization with a $1.5 million budget. His new salary is $114,314 per year.” Independent studies in Roll Call magazine suggest that Kimball’s salary achieved parity with other presidents of similar organizations. This moved caused some fervor on a blog run by a former employee.
