We’re very pleased to announce that Sunlight grantee Capitol News Connection is launching today a new interactive and customizable widget that lets YOU be the journalist — and hold power to account! You decide what you want to ask members of Congress and presidential candidates, see what other people are asking about, and vote on the questions you think are most important. CNC’s award-winning public radio journalists will track down lawmakers and candidates on the campaign trail — and get the answers you demand. Then, you can listen, comment, share and even embed the audio on your site. This is very cool.

Those using the widget include CNC public radio stations, public television sites, bloggers and social networking sites. To get the widget just go to www.askyourlawmaker.org/widget. Select the customization options you want — you can display questions or answers — by topic or state. You can listen and vote within the widget. Try it out — and help spread the word! We want to get as many questions as possible, and aggregate as many voices as possible around each question: It’s hard for a lawmaker to dodge a question asked by, say, 13,952 people in 17 states!

Update: Apparently NPR has taken down the widget from its site, for what may be technical fixes. We trust that will only be temporary.