California Watch, part of the non-profit Center for Investigative Reporting, has launched a new initiative aimed at tracking “every quote, promise and statement” made by California’s two major candidates for governor, Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman.
Readers will be able to sort statements into nine different categories, reports the non-profit site, including promises, attacks and vague policy points, and a category designed to highlight issues that candidates have tried to avoid.
We are unveiling Politics Verbatim today with about 300 documents and 1,000 excerpts. We will be adding to the site daily, scouring news and campaign sites and Twitter and Facebook feeds. We also are encouraging crowdsourcing from other journalists and readers.
California Watch says it is interested in expanding the initiative to cover other candidates and races and the US Senate campaigns.