Oh, wow, that's AWESOME. And this is just the kind of brainstorming I was hoping for!
And, voting records, definitely, though frankly, I've just been going to my various reps' websites and looking at what they say about their stances on various issues, at least in a general way--- the pleasant surprise of finding out that I have a Republican Senator who's pro-Medicare/SS was what got me thinking, "hey, what about a map of where all our reps claim to stand so we can see where the outliers/potential aisle-crossers are?". So if we all did that for our own people and reported back, it would be a start, maybe. Again, a bit of an undertaking, but at this point it's probably a good idea to check our reps' websites on where they've taken stands on various issues--- even if, say, they don't mention something particular, the absence itself possibly suggests that they're staying quiet on that issue because they're not sure what their constituents want (so then let's tell them, shall we?). It might not help with narrowly targeted issues or specific votes, but with broad topics--- gun control, health care (and its various substrates--- someone might support Medicare but not the ACA generally), immigration, voting rights, abortion/birth control, privacy rights, etc.--- we could probably get a general idea of where the ones who deviate from party lines in our favor are?
Re: Activist tools idea from the Vorkosigan Saga
And, voting records, definitely, though frankly, I've just been going to my various reps' websites and looking at what they say about their stances on various issues, at least in a general way--- the pleasant surprise of finding out that I have a Republican Senator who's pro-Medicare/SS was what got me thinking, "hey, what about a map of where all our reps claim to stand so we can see where the outliers/potential aisle-crossers are?". So if we all did that for our own people and reported back, it would be a start, maybe. Again, a bit of an undertaking, but at this point it's probably a good idea to check our reps' websites on where they've taken stands on various issues--- even if, say, they don't mention something particular, the absence itself possibly suggests that they're staying quiet on that issue because they're not sure what their constituents want (so then let's tell them, shall we?). It might not help with narrowly targeted issues or specific votes, but with broad topics--- gun control, health care (and its various substrates--- someone might support Medicare but not the ACA generally), immigration, voting rights, abortion/birth control, privacy rights, etc.--- we could probably get a general idea of where the ones who deviate from party lines in our favor are?