May

24

Money and Politics: Illuminating the Connection

Maplight.org takes Opensecrets.org by making data mashups that correlates the money contributed to elected officials and how these officials vote.

MAPLight.org brings together campaign contributions and how legislators vote, providing an unprecedented window into the connections between money and politics. We currently cover the California Legislature and U.S. Congress.

Users can make reports and graphs, and they can be shared such as by posting on a blog. Access is given to data by legislator, bill number or subject, or special interest.

The Database

MAPLight.org combines three data sets:
* Bill texts and legislative voting records
* Supporting and opposing interests for each bill
* Campaign contribution data from the Center for Responsive Politics and the National Institute on Money in State Politics

Combining this data makes visible key information that could never before be determined easily. For example:
* Contributions given by interests supporting and opposing each bill
* Average donations given to legislators voting “Yes” and “No” on each bill
* Timeline of contributions and votes for each bill, graphically identifying when legislators received large
donations before or after their vote.

Currently the databases include the US Congress and California, but Maplight will be expanding in the near future. -RS

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