Say your editor wants to know how the local pols voted on the farm subsidy bill. What farm bill? Or she sends you to Texas for a mood piece and you know zilch about politics there. Say it's late, your library is closed, and your calls are going nowhere.

This may help. Here are more campaign-related sources from the Internet's World Wide Web (see "The Virtual Trail," cjr, January/February). Some will provide answers. Others wil give you tips, ideas, telephone numbers, contacts. Many are like vines, continually leading to others. Some are worth following; others will need pruning.

Campaigns

Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government offers a good starting point for finding political links -- ranging from advocacy groups to think tanks -- with its Online Political Information Network (http://ksgwww.harvard.edu/~ksgpress/
 opinhome.htm).

For information on presidential candidates, try their Web sites: Dole (http://www.dole96.com), Buchanan (http://www. buchanan.org/index.shtml), and President Clinton (http://
 www.whitehouse.gov).

ElectNet (http://www.el.com/gov/gov.html) has information on state politics, mostly through Web sites for candidates but also updates on local issues. You click on a map of the United States and go from there.

 Campaign Finance

The Federal Election Commission (http://www.fec.gov/) offers background on campaign funding laws, and data on candidates and political action committees.

For another look at campaign spending, try the Web site operated by Mother Jones magazine and the Center for Responsive Politics. Called "The Coin-Op Congress," it includes information on top contributors ("The Mojo 400") and "The Best Congress Money Can Buy," a searchable database of campaign
 contributions (http://www.mojones.com/coinop_congress/ coinop_congress.html).

For general help on campaign finance reporting and on-line sources, try the Web site of National Institute of Computer-Assisted Reporting (http://www. nicar.org/data/fec).

 Legislative Issues

For updates on federal legislation and for the Congressional Record, the Library of Congress has a Web site called Thomas (http://thomas.loc.gov/).

Congressional staff members have compiled information on members of Congress, including helpful links on committees and legislation, at CapWeb (http://policy.net/capweb/congress.html).

Polls

Try the Gallup organization's Web site (http://www.gallup.com) for recent polling information. To identify voters' voices and issue-related organizations, try Democracy Place (http://www.
 soundprint.org/democracy), an interactive site sponsored by The Pew Charitable Trusts and The Pew Center for Civic Journalism.

Humor

Campaign humor abounds. A popular place to find some is at the site offered by the Capitol Steps comedy organization (http://pfm.het.brown.edu/people/mende/steps).

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