Candidate investigator
seeks student interns

By Reem Al-Omari
The Metropolitan

A national non-partisan organization is looking for students to help collect information on more than 13,000 candidates and elected political officials for the 1998 election year.

Project Vote Smart, which was founded in 1988 but started making its information available to the public in 1992, is an internship program that investigates congressional, gubernatorial and legislative candidates around the nation.

ãInterns get a chance to use and develop their skills in a stimulating environment as they work to clear the clouds of lies and deceit that plague our political campaigns,ä said Jennifer Stewart, the organizationâs internship coordinator.

Interns for Project Vote Smart interview candidates, do background checks, research issues for the organizationâs Web site and work with political reporters covering federal and state campaigns.

Adelaide Elm, communications director at Project Vote Smart, said the background checks usually consist of verifying candidatesâ job histories.

ãWeâre not looking for scandals,ä Elm said. ãWeâre simply trying to get the public good information on their candidates.ä
 

Elm said the internships offered by her program are appealing to students majoring in political science, communications and journalism.

The organizationâs headquarters are housed in Boston and Corvallis, Ore. Interns must be available to work full time for 10 weeks to be eligible for the $1,000 scholarship, and Stewart said the program tries to assist interns find living accommodations at both sites.

The organization was founded by a group political officials and activists, including U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, and John Echohawk, a member of the Native American Rights Fund.

?Echohawk is also the father of Sarah Echohawk-Vermillion, the vice president of Administration and Finance for Metroâs Student Government Assembly.

Project Vote Smart is funded entirely by contributions made by foundations and over 50,000 members. It does not accept donations from corporate, special interest groups or groups that lobby government at any level to ensure that the information gathered is accurate and unbiased.

Information about internships and candidates is available on the organizationâs Web site (http://www.vote-smart.org).

The Voterâs Research Hotline can be reached at 1-800-622-SMART.