Thursday, April 08, 2010
Awesome new tool unveiled today—easily trace campaign contributions
by Larry Geller
The message from the Sunlight Foundation was very exciting, if you’re into following the money:
Today we're releasing TransparencyData.com, a new service from the Sunlight Foundation, and technically the most challenging thing we've ever done. TransparencyData lets you query and download bulk data about transparency. We're launching with two datasets that have never been merged before, and without an unprecedented amount of access.
We've merged all of OpenSecrets data with all the data from FollowTheMoney.org allowing you, for the first time, to get a clear picture of campaign contributions at both the state and federal level.
The database is easy to use, lightning fast, and fills an Excel spreadsheet on your computer (if that’s what you want to do) with data in seconds. Or you can just check your candidates on-line and see who owns them what makes their campaign run.
I just tried it. I typed Hanabusa, Djou, and Ed Case into the Recipient box and the data immediately popped up on the screen. These snips are of the first few lines of the 2009-2010 report for each (click for larger).
Try it yourself. This new tool is soooo easy to use.
Let the research begin!
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