This morning, I learned on Facebook that U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva’s office has released an app for iPhones, iPads and iPods. The app is searchable as “Rep. Raúl Grijalva, U.S. Representative.” You can find it on iTunes here. The app includes all recent news releases and newsletters, as well as a survey questions about whether you would like to see cuts made to Medicaid, Medicare or Social Security. You can read Grijalva’s bio, watch his weekly videos and footage of his speeches, and check out his Facebook and Twitter accounts. Although Grijalva’s office billed the app partly as a way to keep track of legislation, I didn’t see a way to track Grijalva’s voting record within the app.  (There are links to that information from his website.) Even without the voting info readily accessible, I thought the app was a cool way to check in on what Grijalva, who happens to be my representative, is up to via iPhone.

iConstituent is the developer of the app, and according to their website, nearly 40 percent of Congress and a slew of other lawmakers have mobile apps. I did a quick check and found that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords does not have one, though both she and Grijalva have apps that are audio versions of their website. The audio websites do feature the websites’ content, but they’re pretty clunky. Searches for U.S. Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl turned up no mobile apps. If you’re not sure whether Grijalva is your representative, check the list of zip codes included in District 7.

What do you think? Would you use an app like this? Or does it amount to wasted energy?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 10th, 2011 at 12:44 pm and is filed under social media. Tags for this post: mobile apps, Raul Grijalva. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.