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A Light on Money and Politics: MAPLight.org
Challenges Entered:
MAPLight.org illuminates the connection between money and politics. We connect campaign contributions and votes for U.S. Congress, providing groundbreaking transparency so that bloggers, journalists, and citizens can hold legislators accountable.
After each election, does your Congressperson vote your way?
Do they take money from tobacco companies? Pharmaceutical firms? Oil companies?
Do they vote to lower your prescription and gas prices? Or do they vote with big-money special interests?
MAPLight.org reveals the answers, providing the information you need to hold your legislators accountable.
MAPLight.org is a groundbreaking public database. We illuminate the connection between campaign donations and legislative votes in unprecedented ways.
“...a preview of the next generation of money-and-politics reporting.â€
--The Sunlight Foundation
Elected officials collect large sums of money to run their campaigns, and they often pay back campaign contributors with special access and favorable laws. This common practice is contrary to the public interest, yet legal.
MAPLight.org makes money/vote connections transparent, to help citizens hold their legislators accountable. We bring together all contributions given to legislators with each legislator's votes on every bill. We publish this critical civic information on an attractive, easy-to-use free website, www.maplight.org.
MAPLight.org is designed for bloggers, issue-oriented advocacy groups, journalists, and citizen leaders. We provide timely, specific information about money and votes in the California legislature and, starting in May, U.S. Congress. Our efforts show how big-money campaign contributions affect issues that people care about, promoting transparency, accountability, and reform. We are nonprofit and nonpartisan.
For a brief overview of MAPLight.org, see our 6-minute Video Tour.
Money and Politics Widgets
With NetSquared funds, we will create customized ‘widgets’ showing campaign contributions and votes in U.S. Congress, updated in real-time. Any blogger, nonprofit group, or citizen can create a widget for free about whatever Federal issue they are interested in.
WHAT WE NEED:
To publish free, customizable money/vote ‘widgets’ available to all, we need $35,000 to support custom programming, user-interface design, data collection, and server resources.
Location
Berkeley, CA
United States
See map: Google Maps
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The data is out there...
It would be great just have some way to pull it together and expose it to the light. Bravo!
Connect them - that Data is available
I agree... I think this project is great just on the fact that MAPLight.org makes money to vote connections transparent, to help citizens hold their legislators accountable - and thats what we need to do these days.
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Sarongs
Great initiative, and great name.
I don't think I have anything to add. It's just great. :)
--ivan (quixotic1.com/Genocide Intervention Network)
MAPLight.org seems like a
MAPLight.org seems like a great project. I'm glad to see that it is focused on making connections between money and politics.
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Always
There should have been a very PUBLIC VIEWABLE connection (besides mainstream bias media companies) between money and politics... especially in a sociaity where money buys A LOT!