New York City – The nonpartisan, nonprofit PublicAgenda.org – twice nominated for a Webby Award for best political site – today officially launched the “Voter’s Survival Kit: The Smart Citizen’s Guide to What the Politicians Won’t Tell You.”

“Elections are too important to be about anything other than how the candidates plan to tackle the big issues that Americans say they care about most, issues like the economy, foreign policy, healthcare, immigration, taxes and climate change,” said Public Agenda President Ruth A. Wooden. “We call on the candidates and the media to join with voters in focusing on real issues in substantive ways in these last, most important 50 days of the election season.”

Candidates like to make big promises and often avoid talking about the serious trade-offs that come with any of the tough choices that have to be made. The Voter’s Survival Kit provides a nonpartisan crib sheet to help voters get the facts straight and protect themselves from political spin. Issue guides in the kit are designed to help typical voters sort through the campaign rhetoric and make up their own minds about which candidates have the best ideas. The issue guides highlight fundamental facts voters need to know and explains more about the choices the country faces in down-to-earth, easily understandable terms.

The Voter’s Survival Kit is written by Jean Johnson and Scott Bittle, the authors of the best-selling book “Where Does the Money Go?” (2008, HarperCollins) that The New York Times said managed to be “entertaining and irreverent while serving as an informative primer on a subject that is crucial to the future of all Americans.”

The authors have applied their concise, engaging approach to complex topics with the Voter’s Survival Kit issue guides on:

• The Economy
• Iraq and Beyond
• Climate Change
• Health Care
• Immigration
• Taxes, Spending and Debt

Each issue guide includes a brief overview of the topic, an evenhanded review of possible solutions and the pros and cons of each approach, both on an interactive web platform and in a downloadable PDF format. The Voter’s Survival Kit also includes online discussion, links to candidate positions on issues and other sites with extensive information on issues, blogging opportunities, links to voting information sites, “Smash the Political Spin” and “Election Countdown” widgets and more.

“A lot of the campaign debate is about questions of leadership and experience, and that’s important. But part of selecting leaders is thinking through where you want them to lead the country,” co-author and Public Agenda Executive Vice President Scott Bittle said.

Co-author and EVP Jean Johnson added, “It doesn’t matter whether it’s the Republicans or the Democrats, liberals or conservatives, most of the promises they make on the campaign trail sound pretty good on the face of it. But just how realistic are they? Do they really hold when you take a closer look at them? Our goal is just to give voters a little help in sorting through the spin – and maybe to help them think about some of the longer-term issues in addition to the headlines of the day.”

Public Agenda has presented citizen issue guides focused on key election topics in every Presidential campaign season since 1996. The 2004 election guides were downloaded by hundreds of thousands of users. With 2.6 million visitors last year, PublicAgenda.org is the site journalists, policymakers, educators and average citizens who want nonpartisan, balanced information with thorough discussion of the pros and cons go for help to clarify the issues.

PUBLIC AGENDA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to nonpartisan public policy research and civic engagement. Founded in 1975 by former U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and Daniel Yankelovich, the social scientist and author, Public Agenda is known for its influential public opinion surveys and balanced citizen education materials. Its mission is to inject the public’s voice into crucial policy debates. Public Agenda seeks to inform leaders about the public’s views and to engage citizens in discussing complex policy issues. It is also known for its destination web site, www.PublicAgenda.org, which has been twice nominated (in 2005 and 2007) for a Webby Award for best political site.