THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA POLITICAL SCIENCE DEPARTMENT

Has several faculty specialists on the topic. One directs the Institute for the Study of Citizens and Politics at the Annenberg Public Policy Center, while another has studied voting and political participation in United States, New Zealand, and Britain. A third is project director of the Democracy and Local Governance Project, an international research group that has interviewed over 17,000 local political leaders in samples of local governments in 30 countries.

TEMPLE UNIVERSITY'S POLITICAL SCIENCE DEPARTMENT has a scholar who is co-author of  "The Presidential Campaign of 2000 and the Foundations of Party Politics," co-director of the Annenberg 2000 Election Survey, and director of the Center for Public Interest Polling at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.

TEMPLE UNIVERSITY'S HISTORY DEPARTMENT has a specialist on "the recent history of American political culture, U.S. social change movements, racial justice politics, and the political capacity of civil society," and another who teaches about the  History of the U.S. Presidency and Twentieth Century United States Political History.

AMERICA VOTES, PENNSYLVANIA is a coalition of the largest issue-based membership organizations in the nation, "joined together to develop a permanent grassroots infrastructure within the progressive community." Its goal is to ensure that "the enormous resources within the progressive political community - human and financial - are aggregated, coordinated, and applied to turn out the vote" for its preferred candidates.

LET FREEDOM RING is a non-profit, grassroots public-policy organization supporting the Conservative agenda. Its website says it operates "at the intersection of faith and politics." It holds workshops to encourage pastors to speak out during religious campaigns, and believes left-wing groups have stifled such expression. The group was founded by a conservative Chester County politician, Colin Hanna.

MOVE-ON PAC, EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA, is the political arm of MoveOn.org, a grassroots lobby that avows moderate to progressive principles of national government. Its intention is to encourage and facilitate smaller donations to offset the influence of wealthy and corporate donors

THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, the region's major daily newspaper, has a host of reporters, editors and columnists who cover politics. They can offer many anecdotes and insights into the city's colorful, often tawdry political culture.