Have I Got a Deal for You!

Here we are folks--the home stretch.  We're less than a week away from the elections and I know you haven't voted yet because you want to wait until Election Day (that's the reason, right?).  Maybe you're still hung up on which candidate to vote for.  You're asking yourself, "I've seen all these attack ads constantly, but they just don't tell me any solid information. I wonder where I could go for that?"  Well, stop asking and start clicking!

Introducing the easily interactive, highly informative event of the midterm season: the cooperative analysis of the Senate, House and gubernatorial races by The New York Times and FiveThirtyEight!

That's right folks, in one complete package you can click your way through gobs of information including:

• Which states are either leaning or solid Democrat/Republican and which states are still toss-ups in the House and Senate races.
• Who the candidates are that are running for a particular race in a state. In the Senate race here in Iowa, for instance, we have Democrat Roxanne Conlin running against Republican incumbent Chuck "Pull the Plug on Grandma" Grassley.
• Which candidate is projected to win based on early results/polling.
• What the incumbent's voting record has been on the major legislation since right before and after President Obama took office.  In Iowa we can see that "Pull the Plug on Grandma" Grassley has voted for TARP and against the stimulus package and health care reform.
• Links to their campaign website so you can view their positions on the issues in extremely vague terms.
• The campaign finances for both candidates. This includes money that's been raised, spent, and how much is still on hand.  It also includes independent expenditures as well as the top five industries and top five contributors that have donated to each candidate's campaign.  You can also delve deeper and see a much longer list of contributors by clicking a link.  Do so with caution, however, as you might find something unsettling such as The University of Iowa gave $11,600 to Grassley's campaign and only $6,450 to Conlin's.  So much for that liberal reputation.
• The state's demographics.  Here in Iowa, 90.5% of the state is white, the median income is $48,585, 89.6% of the people are high school graduates (with only 24.2% with a Bachelor's degree or higher), and 23.8% of the population is under 18.
• Previous election results going back to 2002 and you can see the results of the June 8, 2010 primary.

I know you're thinking this is too good to be true.  There's just so much information here, it has to be expensive!  Wrong.  For the low, low price of just a few mouse clicks, some reading and an hour of your time you can become a more informed voter and make the correct choice come Election Day.  Don't hesitate, research now!