In a recent article by newsobserver.com, they discussed the challenge that many Senate incumbents will face in the upcoming election. Many Americans are displeased with the actions of both Republicans and Democrats and have decided to take matters into their own hands. As a result, states such as North Carolina have experienced a record breaking number of candidates, nearly 70 for the upcoming Senate race. Ordinary citizens are taking the challenge and deciding to run in an effort to promote positive change. Although many politicians were surprised by this response, they believe it will ultimately come down to the money and who can maintain the necessary funds.

Job loss and over-extended budgets are something that we have all felt in the last year or two. With elections right around the corner many politicians are beginning to feel the pressure, and New York is no exception. The rapidly growing non-partisan voter advocacy group “Unshackle Upstate” recently announced that they will scoring all 212 state legislators on a 100 point scale based on their voting records in areas such as property tax, government spending, and creating new jobs. As a group their goal is to help inform voters and significantly reduce government spending. Click here to learn more about “Unshackled Upstate” and their goals for the upcoming election.

The state of Illinois is currently in great debate. While everyone agrees that the state’s legislative districts need to be reconfigured, they cannot agree on who should do and how it should be done. Many currently in office in the legislature believe that they are the ones best equipped to handle the task; however, many more believe that the re-mapping should be done by a non-partisan group and then voted on by the people. You can find more information here.

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.

Four years ago, I did some analysis of the voting of US states by their average IQ. It found that John Kerry won the 16 most “intelligent” US states, while George W. won the 26 least intelligent.

A similar analysis of the Democratic voting this time around is less conclusive. Of the 25 states that Barack Obama has won to date, the average IQ ranking is 24.6, compared to 21.7 for the 16 that Hillary Clinton has won. (The averages for Bush and Kerry were 34.7 and 10.5 respectively in 2004.)

Obama won Connecticut, the “most intelligent” state, the next four intelligent states being taken by Clinton (Massachusetts, Jersey, New York and Rhode Island). The top ten for which elections have taken place have been evenly divided between the two candidates.

At the bottom end, of the states whose elections have taken place, Obama has won the four least intelligent states (Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, South Carolina) and seven of the bottom ten.

Obama now needs to walk away with at least 44.5% of the remaining delegates to reach the 2,025 winning post, this being the lowest this figure has been in the entire election. Should be an exciting run home.