"Through legislative advocacy, Realtors serve as guardians of private property rights and homeownership," said Judy Jarvis Ellis, president of the Silicon Valley Association of Realtors. "We're proud to be on the frontline of alerting homeowners when they need to know about current ordinances and the impact on their property rights."

The Silicon Valley Association of Realtors keeps tabs on legislative issues of concern to Realtors and homeowners by monitoring political events in the local community. The national association's local government relations committees interview candidates for elected office and provide endorsement recommendations to the Silicon Valley Realtors and Homeowners Political Action Committee. As the political arm of the association, the Homeowners Political Action Committee supports issues and candidates at the local level.

At the national level, more than 350,000 Realtors contributed to the Realtors Political Action Committee (RPAC) last year, which is a record 44 percent of National Association of Realtors members.

As the largest political action committee in the country, RPAC supported 30 U.S. Senate candidates and 422 candidates for the House of Representatives this past cycle. An astounding 432 out of these 452 candidates won their races, giving the political action committee a 96 percent winning streak. Contributions were pretty evenly split between both parties, with 53 percent of contributions going to Republican candidates and 47 percent going to Democrats.

"This record level of RPAC participation demonstrates that Realtors are among the most politically active and engaged citizens in this country. We represent participatory democracy at its best," said the association's president, Cathy Whatley, who also indicated that the contribution breakdown reflects the current partisan make-up of Congress.

Information provided in this column is presented by the Realtor members of the Silicon Valley Association of Realtors at www.silvar.org. Send questions on any topic to jnewton@jnpr.com.