The following links and information are intended to help you be action oriented

•  Virginia General Assembly "Who's My Legislator?" link

http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/main?openform

•  The following is a great site, easier to use than the VA state site, and it includes local AND national information.  It even includes contact information for all of the various government Departments.     http://takeaction.lwv.org/lwv/dbq/officials/

•      OpenSecrets.org is your nonpartisan guide to money's influence on U.S. elections and public policy. What a lot of incredibly enlightening financial information about all of our elected public officials, financial influence and lobbyists!  Here's the Home page:

http://www.opensecrets.org/index.php

        Here's the "Get Local!" page on the site, where you can type in your zip code and get access to monetary influence in your local politics:  http://www.opensecrets.org/states/index.php

•  These are lists of various publications, such as explaining the Electoral Process.

http://www.lwv.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Voter_Information2&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=41&ContentID=8305

http://www.lwv.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=How_to_be_Politically_Effective&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=41&ContentID=1901

•  Concerned Women For America:  This is the "How to Lobby From Your Kitchen Table Brochure", which is good basic advice on how to effectively contact representatives, media, etc.    http://www.cwfa.org/brochures/home-lobby.pdf

1. • How to effectively communicate with and lobby members of the House and Senate. Click to get more information  http://thomas.loc.gov/
   

    Here is a great website from the Library of Congress which gives an incredibly detailed rundown of everything that is currently happening on Capitol Hill, including the full Congressional Record, Committee Reports, Presidential Nominations, and Treaties to name but a few topics available here. I think that most activists will find this site invaluable.

1. • The Virginia Public Access Project, VPAP for short, lists all of the candidates for public office in Virginia, all of the financial information for each candidate including a list of all donors to the campaign and how much they contribute.  There is also some contact information for the candidates here.   http://www.vpap.org/candidates
   

•  The League of Women Voters of the Fairfax County Area and Fairfax City:  The League puts out a really great little handy publication, called "Facts for Voters", which includes all contact information for local, state and national elected officials, school boards, zoning commissions, etc.  The brochure also gives information about what each office does, the terms, salaries, next election for that office, and much more.  In order to get one, people can send a self-addressed, stamped #10 business-sized envelope to:

LWVFA, Facts for Voters

4026 Hummer Road

Annandale, Virginia 22003-2403

703-658-9150

WELL worth the effort to get this tiny book!   The League does NOT endorse any political party or candidate.