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Follow the Money
April 7, 2008
An interesting and telling phrase, “follow the money” has been used in many contexts – I first encountered it in All the President’s Men (I was a child, of course). But we can all follow the money that’s funding politics via some interesting, freely-available web sites. One is FundRace 2008 – The Huffington Post (referred to me by my good friend and colleague Michael Hopper), which you can search by name, address, occupation, and employer to find out who’s contributing what to which candidate(s). You can even add the FundRace 2008 widget to your own site.
Another interesting site is Follow the Money, from the National Institute on Money in State Politics, a (self-identified) nonpartisan, nonprofit organization showing campaign contributions for state-level elections and public policy in the 50 states. Want to see the effect of lobbyists on legislation? Take a look at the NIMSP’s legislative committee analysis tool (a mashup produced in collaboration with Project Vote Smart) of state legislative committee rosters and campaign donor data. It “illustrates the intersection where campaign money and the laws that affect everyday life overlap.”
These are both great educational and reference tools – so please do share them with your colleagues and patrons, if you haven’t already.
More as it happens (in dollars and sense),
Cheryl
Posted by Cheryl LaGuardia on April 7, 2008 | Comments (0)
