Where the Politicians Are on July 4th

Use Blue America 's amazing tech tool to find out if your public servant will be making a public appearance in your area, and check out the list generated by firedoglake members below.

If your senator or representative isn't listed in either the tool or below, learn how to determine if they're making a public appearance at the bottom of this page.

Known Public Appearances

Sen Susan Collins of Maine is rumored to be participating in the parade in Bangor on the 4th of July -- the parade starts at 11 am ET. (hat tip fdl)

Sen. Harkin of Iowa will be walking in the Clear Lake Fourth of July parade, and in West Des Moines on the 3rd. To walk with him, show up.

Sen. Schumer of New York is rumored to be in Southhampton, Long Island. (hat tip LS)

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California has no public events planned for the holiday weekend, though she is "in the state for the break." Her schedule isn’t given out to the entire staff “for security purposes.” Nothing will be posted on her website with regard to upcoming public appearances. (Teddy Partridge)

Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska and Sen. Rockefeller of West Virginia - no public appearances. (fdl)

Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana and Sen. Lugar of Indiana - no public appearances. (PraedorAtrabates)

Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado - no public appearances that they're acknowledging. (siri)

How To Find Where Your Senator or Congressperson Will Be July 4th

This is not easy - most politicians do not post a schedule of their public appearances, and the information is not easy to come by.

If no one has yet tracked down your senator or representative, this is the best way to find them:

1. Start with their Senate (or House) and campaign websites. If no public appearances are listed on the websites, use the information there to call your congressperson's local offices, and their DC offices. Be polite and persistent - if one office doesn't give you the information, another may.

If that doesn't work:

1. Check the "community calendar" section of the local newspapers.
2. Search Google News for "YourSenator'sname Parade" "YourSenator's name Barbeque" "YourSenator'sname Picnic" "YourSenator'sname fundraiser". If you don't get hits, make a Google Alert. (hat tip Ben Masel)
3. Google on "democratic party" +"state" -- where "state" is the name of your state. That will give you the Democratic Central Committee web site for your state and they will have a calendar of events listing where all of the Democratic candidates will be (both public and private events). If you have a Republican congresscritter, you can try using "republican party" but many of them don't have calendars or they are not current. (hat tip ( Carolita) Note that in certain large states such as Florida, the Democratic Committee web sites are by county, and each county has its own site and calendar.

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