In addition to searching for Senate and House bills using the main site search tool, we have added Bill Finder to the Bill Tracking pages that allow you to browse by bill topic, search by keyword or bill number, and limit your results to a particular chamber (House or Senate). 

There is also a “tag cloud” (an unordered list of the subjects of the more popular bills search/viewed) beneath the bill finder. The larger the text, the more popular that subject is in our Bill Tracker.

All site visitors can use this search and browse tool. However, joining the site as a member adds a few extra advantages.

As a site member, you have several additional options to vote on, make comments on, or join discussions on bills. You can also follow (track) the bill. When new comments are made on bills you’re following, updates appear in your activity feed and, when the 111th Congress is called to session in 2009, changes in a bill’s progress through the legislature will also be tracked and you will be notified when such changes occur.

As always, all site members who have entered their state and Congressional district information in their Account Settings will be able to link directly from their MyP4A home page to the sponsored/cosponsored bills and legislative activity of their elected officials.

So check out the improved Bill Finder today and let us know if we can improve the experience in any way.

Technorati Tags: bill tracking, legislation

MONTGOMERY, AL – October 31, 2008 – Politics4All announces the participation of several national candidates on their politically-neutral website, www.politics4all.com. Politics4All is a social platform created to provide citizens, candidates, and political advocacy groups a central network in which to exchange ideas and information about politics on the local, state, and national levels.

Politics4All provides free of charge to campaigns a suite of campaign management tools that can be used for volunteering, campaign and legislative tracking, news feeds, blogging, news flashes, press kits, and a real-time town hall forum. Politics4All’s collaborative network provides a community of users interested in people, activities, events, and groups about politics.

Philip Bryan, communications director for the Alabama Republican Party was quoted in a local newspaper saying, “For people who aren’t in these high dollar races, this is a platform they can use to really get their message out to more people,” Bryan said. “As they develop it and make it robust, they will increase all the different ways for candidates to really get their message out. I can’t wait to see where it goes.”

The Democratic Party of Alabama also sees the potential of Politics4All. Lindsay Waits, communications director says, “Politics4All arrived at the opportune time, as the field of politics has really branched out to encompass the online community.  This has been especially evident in the success of the Barack Obama campaign. It also provides an interactive outlet for us, as a party, to share information with the public to which they may not otherwise have access.”

Branden South, Vice President of Marketing of Politics4All, believes this website will change the landscape of politics. “Politics4All has the power to change the way all sides communicate in the political world. Candidates have more resources at their fingertips. Citizens can become more involved at all levels of politics. All this is done through the power of the Internet.”

• 124,000,000 Americans have gotten news and information about this years’ campaign from the Internet
• 28,000,000 Americans 30 and under use social networking websites to get or share information about politics or campaigns
• 18,000,000 Americans go to the Internet daily to engage politically

###

Technorati Tags: campaign management, candidates

One of our primary goals here at Politics4All is to greatly simplify the effort required by citizens to remain up-to-date on the activities of their elected officials. This week we gave Politics4All site members the ability to follow, vote on, and discuss Congressional legislation in a way we hope is simple, helpful, and informative.

Bills in our system can now be followed just as other site members, groups, and campaigns. Members following bills will receive new comment updates in their activity feeds on their MyP4A home page. When the 111th Congress convenes in January, Politics4All will track the progress of new bills through Congress and update their status (on the bill display pages and activity feeds of members following them).

As an added benefit, members who have entered their political district information in their user accounts will automatically be informed when their senators and representatives introduce or cosponsor new legislation.

The initial version of this feature includes House and Senate bills aggregated from the Library of Congress, with resolutions, amendments, and much, much more to come in the weeks and months ahead.

Please check out these new features and let us know what you think!

Take me to Bill Tracking>

Technorati Tags: bill tracking, legislation

In order to simplify the process for finding site content, we moved the content tabs (Front-Runners and Latest) from the front page to MyP4A for site members so that all blog post listings are accessible in your MyP4A home page alongside the Activity Feed. As your personalized home page, MyP4A will grow in the coming months as we tie-in even more information from Congressional and other sources at the state and local levels.

Another change to be aware of…we’ve enhanced the political temperature questions from issue topics to full position statements. Keep in mind that these answers are completely private…no one can see them but you.

Technorati Tags: political matching

This year’s presidential campaign has shown that the Internet can be a powerful tool to have in one’s campaign arsenal.  Both presidential candidates have ushered in a new and effective means for developing grassroots support on a large scale with their use of the Internet.  Politics4All is designed to provide those same types of campaign management tools to every office seeker or current office holder on the local, state, and national level. The catch is . . . there is no catch. Politics4All offers this service at no cost to the candidate.

Today’s campaign environment is getting harder to control.  Candidates or incumbents seeking all levels of government office are trying to navigate through an unprecedented access to media sources.  In addition to traditional media (newspaper, radio, television, outdoor), the Internet has taken on a more pronounced role in campaigning.  With the proliferation of Facebook and MySpace-type web sites, today’s voters are expecting a “quick view” of politics. While these types of Websites and single-candidate sites may give them a taste of politics, Politics4All gives the candidates and citizens all-things political in one place.

For example, if a candidate creates their own web site, the number of potential citizen-visits will be extremely limited. The majority of visitors to a candidate’s Website are those citizens already supporting the candidate, or members of the media that are researching the candidate.  With Politics4All, the candidate will attract far more potential voters without incurring costly design, development, and hosting fees. 

Politics4All provides today’s candidate with a free Web-based platform combining campaign tracking, volunteering, blogging, press kits, and a real-time town hall forum, helping bridge the gap between the candidate and the citizen.

To register, go to www.politics4all.com and create an account. When creating an account, type county, municipal or state in the Promo Code box. Next, the candidate will request a Candidate account. A candidate account will provide more tools to help them manage their campaigns and grow their support base. The candidate can then build their personal candidate profile and start to experience the power of Politics4All. The candidate can add pictures or videos, blog about their campaign or platform, or contact potential voters. And with a personal web address, ex. jansmith.politics4all.com, the candidate can drive traffic directly to their personal P4A website.

“Politics4All is designed to allow candidates, citizens, and political organizations to collaborate and influence the political landscape, at all levels of government,” says Branden South, Vice President of Marketing & Co-Founder of Politics4All.  “Now the candidate has a tool to help them grow their voter-base, all on a politically-neutral site.” said South.  There are only a few hundred nationally elected officials in the U.S., but more than 400,000 on the state, county and municipal levels.

One of the added benefits of Politics4All is that the communication established by the candidate during a campaign doesn’t have to end once the campaign has ended. For instance, if the election is won, the office holder can continue to send information and news to their constituents through Politics4All, or use our platform to direct them back to the local government’s official web site.

From voter referendums for a proposed drink tax in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, to a ballot in Nashville, Tennessee proposing English as a first language for all state government workers, Politics4All provides a forum for a candidate to rally support and voice their opinions with others, including the citizens who will be impacted by these decisions.  While the U.S. presidential elections are top of mind, Politics4All builds upon promoting political candidates, issues and parties on a local level, where decisions made have an immediate impact on voters.

Politics4All’s collaborative network provides a community of users interested in people, activities, events, and groups about politics. Local politicians are excited about the launch of Politics4All. According to Alabama State Representative David Grimes, “Politics4All provides an unbiased forum for the free-flow exchange of political ideas so that all sides can be more accurately informed.”

Now, the power of developing a grassroots support base is available to anyone who campaigns for an elected office.  The future of campaigning is here, and Politics4All is leading the charge.  Politics4All is encouraging registered political candidates, incumbents, advocacy groups, and voters to register with its site, and begin the political discussion in their hometown.

Technorati Tags: candidates, local elections