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Big names back political social network Vote iQ

The political social network Vote iQ received a shot in the arm this week when Democratic strategist James Carville and Republican pollster Frank Luntz announced they would be joining the company's board of advisers. Set to launch June 3rd at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York, the nonpartisan startup has already attracted the support of prominent individuals including actor Richard Dreyfuss, historian Rick Perlstein and James Fallows of The Atlantic.

The site aims to become a "Facebook for political views" and will provide a single place where users can obtain all of their political information, according to Vice President Rick Shenkman, an associate professor of history at George Mason University. Users will set up a profile, input their zip code and be able to see a list of upcoming elections and candidates in their vicinity. The firm is starting with federal and state legislators but eventually plans to include local and county races as well.

Each candidate or elected official will have a profile maintained by Vote iQ linking to all relevant news coverage, as well as information on their campaign positions, donors and activities. Candidates will also have the option to purchase additional websites to help promote their candidacies, but doing so will not affect their Vote iQ profiles.

"Each profile will be controlled by us, not the candidate," Shenkman said. "You can go here and get trustworthy information on who they are, key votes they have taken and campaign contributors. No one else has brought all this information together in one place."...
Read entire article at The Hill (Blog)