After watching a political campaign ad on television, do you feel like a more informed voter or are you left feeling dazed and confused? These days, political campaigns are constructed to manipulate voters' emotions instead of giving them facts. This makes understanding candidates' opinions difficult because the truth is often buried beneath layers of misleading rhetoric and exaggerations. How are you supposed to be an educated voter if the purpose of campaigns is to confuse you? Have you really wondered how a political candidate will respond to important issues if they are elected to serve you? Thankfully, a non-profit, non-partisan research organization called Project Vote Smart has found a way to help voters discover the truth. By Election Day, Project Vote Smart will have given every candidate in the nation a test-the Political Courage Test. In fact, since July 2 more than 200 California candidates for Congress and state legislature have been sent the Political Courage Test and are sharpening their pencils right now.

Actually this is a very easy test to pass. It asks one easy yes/no question: "Are you willing to tell voters your positions on the issues you will most likely face on their behalf if elected?"

If you say yes, you will be asked to prove it by answering a few questions on issues known to be of concern to voters in California. It will only take you a few minutes. You can skip 30 percent of the questions, and you can use your own words so you don't feel pinned down. Your responses will be posted on a web site that gets more than 16 million hits a day from users looking for non-partisan, factual relevant information on their own candidates and representatives.

The only way to flunk this test is to say no, or fail to provide issue responses by the deadline. This response will also be reported to the public. They will be left to wonder why you are willing to spend most of your time raising money to pay for television ads and campaign mailers that bombard them with hype and spin, but aren't willing to help them become informed voters.

Project Vote Smart, a national non-profit research organization founded by political opposites such as Carter and Ford, Goldwater and McGovern, Gingrich and Dukakis, is currently conducting the Political Courage Test of all California candidates. The results of the Project's earlier study (the National Political Awareness Test), which was conducted from 1996-2006, showed a clear and dramatic decline in the courage of candidates to answer issue questions, based on advice not to do so from their campaign consultants. The clear message? It is getting increasingly difficult to get candidates to step away from their polling statistics and finely honed, tailored campaign messages and images to tell voters the truth. It takes, unfortunately, a lot of political courage, which the majority of candidates now lack. One consultant told the Project, "It's not our job to educate, it's our job to win." Another said, "We only answer issue questions if they come with a campaign contribution."

Is this what the original founders of the United States government Madison, Jefferson, Washington and Adams had in mind when they designed self-government, by the people and for the people? Is this how we create an informed electorate? Do we want to have to rely on the emotionally charged rhetoric and negativity of campaign ads to decide whom to hire for some of the most important jobs in our society?

The deadline for the 2008 California Political Courage Test is at midnight, Aug. 13. Shortly after that date, you can find out which candidates have the courage to tell you their positions on the issues you care about, and which ones are ducking for cover. Call the toll-free Voter's Research Hotline, 1-888-VOTE SMART, or visit the Project Vote Smart Web site at www.votesmart.org.