I was wondering how hard it is to get actual vote data. I want a tool that lets me vote on issues I care about and compare my own preference against actual representatives to see how well I'm actually represented on issues that have actually come before them.<p>There was a tool out prior to the last election that tried to do this, but it compared your preference on divisive issues (like abortion or immigration) to parties - not actual vote records and individual congress critters.
Anyone interested in this sort of thing should check out voteview.<p><a href="http://voteview.org/" rel="nofollow">http://voteview.org/</a>
If you're interested in this you might also be interested in Simon Jackman's ideal point estimates for the Senate and House:<p><a href="http://jackman.stanford.edu/ideal/currentSenate/d3/long.html" rel="nofollow">http://jackman.stanford.edu/ideal/currentSenate/d3/long.html</a>
<a href="http://jackman.stanford.edu/ideal/currentHouse/d3/long.html" rel="nofollow">http://jackman.stanford.edu/ideal/currentHouse/d3/long.html</a><p>His blog (which among other things has links to the roll call data in RData form):<p><a href="http://jackman.stanford.edu/blog/" rel="nofollow">http://jackman.stanford.edu/blog/</a>