Web site provides candidate updates

In an effort to increase voter education, the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce has launched an initiative to provide updated coverage of local political candidates on its Web site. The site, located at www.chamber.bloomington.in.us/election, features candidate profiles, information on candidate positions regarding local business issues and the results of the Chamber's recent questionnaire.\nWhile the IU student community is not the target audience of the Chamber's efforts, Jen Kingry, Chamber election coordinator, suggests that student involvement is still a priority.\n"Mainly we are focusing on Chamber members in the community, but getting students involved is important as well," Kingry said. "We initially started with intent to target students on campus, but there were already so many organizations starting up initiatives on voting that we shied away from it."\nIU College Democrats Vice President of Politics Dan O'Neill said he found the Web site to be objective. \n"From the Chamber's point of view, they want to increase student votes," O'Neill said. "This looks reasonably helpful. In College Democrats, we are trying to encourage students to vote democratic, but on an educated basis. ... We try to reach as many students as we can, but it's an uphill battle." \nOn the Web site, the Chamber defines its purpose as "identifying the issues important to the business community, gauging candidate perspectives on these issues and communicate that information available to the community," with the specific intent being the assurance "that the community understands the issues that relate to business as well as the candidate's positions on these issues."\nAngel Rivera, chairman for IU College Republicans, was skeptical of the Web site's potential effectiveness in reaching the student body. \n"I don't think enough students will read what the Chamber of Commerce will post," Rivera said. He cited the importance of local newspapers and student groups as major contributors to student participation in the November election.\n"(Without campus organizations) students don't realize how much city government affects them," Rivera said.\n-- Contact staff writer Molly Erman at merman@indiana.edu