Edwin Bender, National Institute on Money in State Politics

From immigration legislation to energy and environmental reforms, campaign finance data can provide unadulterated insight into the strategies of the forces behind legislation and electoral strategies. The examples of how data can be used to educate the public on important public-policy issues are numerous:

• During the 2005 election season in Virginia, Dominion—a Virginia-based energy company—and its subsidiary, Dominion Virginia Power, gave campaign contributions to lawmakers who would later vote on a critical energy re-regulation bill that the company helped author. Since 1999, the company gave $2.2 million to state-level politics. The giving peaked in 2005 when state politicians and parties received nearly $707,000. The legislation sought by the company passed.

• Early in the 2007 state legislative cycle, when many state legislatures convened, Merck pharmaceutical company began an aggressive lobbying campaign to require all teenage girls in public schools be vaccinated for the human papillomavirus (HPV). Merck owned the only vaccine for HPV, so it stood to make millions of dollars if legislators approved the legislation it proposed in 17 states. Long before the lobbying campaign began, Merck paved the way for access by giving more than $2.4 million in political contributions to candidates in more than 40 states since 2000.

• The short-term, high-interest loan industry is generating attention from lawmakers in statehouses across the country: in early 2007, 17 states introduced predatory loan legislation. The industry also gives generously to state-level politicians and political parties. Since the 2000 election cycle, high-interest lenders have contributed $7.36 million to state-level candidates and party committees in 42 states. Although money doesn’t pave the way to success, it helps the industry gain access to legislators and the policy-making process that the average citizen cannot afford. A recent public radio broadcast in Utah used the report to highlight a piece of legislation affecting the payday industry and how contributions might be affecting the policy process.

But nobody would be able to see these issues clearly without access to data. The National Institute of Money in State Politics provides a solid data foundation for organizations working on advocacy on a wide range of issues. To gather the necessary data each election cycle, staff combines donor information reported in more than 90,000 campaign and expense forms by 18,000 candidates and committees from all 50 states into one uniform database, accessible at www.followthemoney.org. After the data has been compiled, researchers can look at who gave most of the $3 billion in contributions to see who the major donors were and which companies or special interests seemed to be giving strategically. The web site FollowTheMoney.org offers easy access to donor information by major industry—real estate, banking, energy, unions, health care, etc.—so that those interested in doing deeper research can find the numbers they need quickly.

To enhance its mission of making this important information available to the public, the Institute recently launched application programming interfaces (APIs) and widgets that let the public add FollowTheMoney.org features and data to their Web sites or blogs – for free.

In coming months, the Institute will be launching new visual analyses of its data, building on the PULSE and M©50 analyses already available. Numbers are important, but interactive charts and graphics let people see the connections quickly and easily. With APIs, widgets and more examples of visual analysis of data, the Institute hopes it can foster more effective citizen journalists who can help hold their elected representatives accountable for their votes, and expose special interests trying to profit from public policy.

In the next few years, the Institute will prioritize the creation of different ways to analyze data. Visualization of data and the visual analysis of public policy are areas where the Institute will be spending a great deal of time.