There have been lots of conversations recently -- most of them provocative in the good sense of that word -- about the success or failure of the open data and/or open government movements. I have just a few thoughts to add that I hope amplify Sunlight's position.

Sunlight believes in open data and open government not because these are abstract goods, but because we want to make government more accountable to ordinary people and less subservient to well-connected special interests. We think it's great that more consumer-facing data will be opened up by the Obama administration (aka "smart disclosure"), and we want the "operating system" of government open and free, along with many others. And to be sure, there are many additional benefits to be had from opening up government data including increasing efficiency, reducing waste, creating new business opportunities and empowering consumers.

But we remain insistent that a central if not the core goal of the transparency movement must be to shift power from the few to the many, by making all the information about who is trying to influence the process and what they get out the other end more accessible to all. That's why we keep a large part of our attention focused on opening up the political influence arena and exposing the lobbying culture, and that's why we called out (back in September 2010) the inadequacies of the Obama administration's implementation of its open government directive; why we criticized the extra-governmental crackdown on WikiLeaks; and why we will continue to press both sides of the aisle and the regulatory agencies to force open the exploding world of "Dark Money" super PACs being employed by Republican and Democratic operatives alike.

I've been at these fights a few decades now, and I have never been more optimistic. The culture of transparency as an instrument of accountability -- by citizens and government alike -- is now generally accepted. The strategy of pushing and pulling Washington -- and every state capitol and every government in the world -- will be done by the tens of millions of people online demanding answers to their questions and who will, eventually, vote based on the answers they receive or don't. Information is the key to action.

There are almost 27,000 people—or 1/100th of one percent of the United States population—who spent more than $10,000 to influence elections during the 2010 election cycle.

The top 10 people from this elite class of donors together spent more than $23 million on the last election. The majority of that money went to Super PACs used for independent expenditures. Eight contributed their money exclusively to Republican groups and candidates; two contributed exclusively to Democratic groups and candidates.

In total, this tiny group of relatively unknown individuals was responsible for $774 million of the $3.2 billion that poured into the hotly contested mid-term elections. That money went not only to candidate campaigns and political action committees, but to Super PACs, officially known as “independent expenditure-only committees.” After the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Citizens United and the Federal Election Commission’s two advisory opinions that followed, individuals and corporations effectively have unlimited giving potential. By giving to Super PACs, they can bypass traditional giving limits.

The group that benefited most from the top 10 mega-donors largesse: American Crossroads. That Super PAC received millions of dollars from seven of the top donors, and $7 million from just one donor, Bob Perry.

Here’s a look at who’s who among America’s top 10 most influential givers:

1. Bob Perry is the CEO of Perry Homes. Perry has been influential in politics and a prominent donor for a number of years. In 2004, he gave $8 million to a number of nonprofit political groups known as 527 committees. Most notably, $4.4 million of that money went to the political group Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, which opposed Sen. John Kerry’s presidential bid. During the 2010 election cycle, Perry donated $7.3 million to political efforts. All but a small portion of his money for the 2010 election went to American Crossroads, a group cofounded by former George W. Bush strategist Karl Rove and former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie.

2. Wayne Hughes, owner and chairman of Public Storage, Inc. According to disclosures, Hughes gave a total of $3.28 million to conservative candidates and committees, with $3.25 million going to American Crossroads. Hughes also gave $4,800 to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.

3. Fred Eshelman is the CEO of Pharmaceutical Product Development. Eshelman spent $3 million in 2010 funding his own group, RightChange. RightChange registered with the FEC as a Super PAC and spent those millions of dollars to defeat Democratic candidates including Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado and Sen. Patty Murray of Washington.

4. Robert Rowling, CEO and Chairman of TRT Holdings, a holding company that owns Golds Gyms and Omni Hotels as well as oil and gas interests. Rowling spent $2.59 million during the last election on conservative efforts. He gave $2.5 million of that money to American Crossroads.

5. Donald Sussman is the Chairman of the holding company Paloma Partners. Sussman, who earlier this year married Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, gave $1.26 million in 2010 to Democratic candidates. He has also funded a group called the Democracy Fund, a separate but predecessor organization to the United Republic Action Fund. Both of these groups have been affiliated with United Republic, and both have been dissolved.* Sussman gave a little more than $750,000 to the Super PAC Women Vote! and its parent organization Emily’s List. Those two organizations support pro-choice female political candidates.

6. John Ricketts is the founder of TD Ameritrade and still a board member there. In 2010, his total political contributions were $1.25 million. He gave to a variety of Republican candidates, including House Speaker John Boehner.
   

7. Jerry Perenchio is the CEO of the investment firm Chartwell Partners and former owner of the Spanish-speaking television network Univision. In 2010, he gave $1.12 million to conservative candidates and groups, including $1 million to American Crossroads.

8. Trevor Rees-Jones is the president of Chief Oil & Gas. In 2010, he gave $1.1 million to Republican efforts. $1,000,000 of that was given to American Crossroads.

9. Rachel Hunter is the Treasurer for the organization Media Matters and an heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune. She’s related to Penny Pritzker who was the national finance chairwoman of the Obama campaign in 2008. In 2010, Hunter gave more than $1 million to democratic groups and candidates. The bulk of that money went to the 527 organization, Bring Ohio Back.

10. John Childs is on the Board of Directors for Club for Growth and is the founder of JW Childs Assoc., a private equity firm. In 2010, he gave a total $923,000 to Super PACs supporting Republicans and to Republican candidates directly. He gave $100,000 of that money to American Crossroads and $650,000 to his own group, Club for Growth.

For a full list of the top donors for 2010, see the embedded spreadsheet below.

Also, as a disclaimer, we think it is important to note that there are funders of the Sunlight Foundation on this list. For example, David Bonderman and Marjorie Roswell are numbers 9 and 103 on the list and have donated to the Sunlight Foundation. Additionally, the founder of the Open Society Foundations, George Soros, is 134th on the list. Open Society Foundations has provided grant support to Sunlight.

*Based on inaccurate information received from a source at United Republic, we originally reported incorrectly that Donald Sussman is a funder of that organization.

The Sunlight Foundation is proud to announce our Checking Influence tool that gives individuals the power to see the political expenditures of the businesses you frequent. The simple bookmarklet allows users to connect personal spending habits seen on your online bank or credit card statement with the lobbying and political contributions of companies.

As we start to examine how much we spent on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, Checking Influence will let all of us see how effortlessly politics escapes Washington and settles its way into our wallets; often without us even knowing it. We created this tool to help Americans be more informed consumers and citizens. Just as some consumers check to see if their coffee is free trade or if their clothing is manufactured in sweatshops, they can now know if their purchases help fund lobbying campaigns. We’re trying to answer the question: When you buy coffee at Starbucks; refill a prescription at Walgreens; or download a song from iTunes, do you know where your money really goes?

How to Use Checking Influence

Using Checking Influence is simple and secure. First, add the Checking Influence bookmarklet to your browser’s toolbar. Next, go to any web page that shows your spending transactions, such as a banking site, your credit card statement or Mint.com. Then, just click on the Checking Influence bookmarklet, and it will find the company names on the transactions list and show you the “influence data” for the corporations it can identify -- including political campaign contributions and what lobbying the corporation conducted.

Behind the Curtain

The backbone of Checking Influence is TransparencyData.com, Sunlight’s open-source, central repository for federal lobbyist registrations, federal grant and federal and state campaign contributions. Sunlight Labs, the Foundation's in-house team that builds technology and Internet tools to make government more transparent and accountable, developed Checking Influence. The site is built upon the public Transparency Data API, whose data is provided by the Center for Responsive Politics and the National Institute for Money in State Politics.

A Note About Security

We understand that everyone is cautious about banking information online (and rightfully so!), which is why the Sunlight Foundation has taken a number of steps to ensure that Checking Influence is safe to use. Checking Influence uses the same industry-standard SSL encryption that your banking site does to keep your financial information secure and we don't save any personally identifiable information. The tool is simply searching bank statements for transactions with company names that match information from TransparencyData.com.

Please contact us with any feedback and we hope you enjoy playing around with this new tool!

The Washington Times has been running a pretty decent series on the connections between congressmen and charitable foundations that carry their name or are otherwise closely associated with them. Today, the reporting focuses on Rep. Joe Barton and his Joe Barton Family Foundation. Like some other congressional charitable foundations, the Joe Barton Family Foundation spends an inordinate amount of money on fund raising and staff while donating little to actual charity. Oh, and also, many of the contributors to the Foundation are energy companies with an interest in policies that are shaped in the Energy & Commerce Committee where Barton is ranking Republican member.

It's pretty difficult to determine which charitable foundations are associated with lawmakers. Some are easy, when they carry the name of the congressman or senator, and some are difficult. Below is a quick list of some of these charities. I'd also suggest checking out this page on Open Secrets that lists positions held by lawmakers on charitable foundations and private ventures.