Using TransparencyData.com to track Goldman’s partners

by

We all know, thanks to the Center for Responsive Politics, that Goldman Sachs is a heavy hitter–in the 2008 presidential cycle, among the top donors to both Barack Obama and John McCain, that its employees, their family members and its PAC favor Democrats in their giving by a two to one margin (and three to one in the 2008 election cycle), and Goldman Sachs has been among the top 100 donors to 286 election campaign committees for members of Congress.

But what about others involved in the financial instrument that the Securities and Exchange Commission alleges was fraudulent? Is ACA Management, which CNBC reports might have been as responsible for the billion-dollar failure of the mortgage-based assets as Goldman Sachs (and thus not a victim of fraud, as the SEC alleges), also a home for big campaign contributors?

I ran the names of the board of directors of ACA Financial Guaranty Corporation, the parent of ACA Management, through TransparencyData.com, Sunlight’s newest tool for accessing federal and state campaign finance data. With one click of the mouse, I was able to preview records for all nine board members, then download 60 records. Clearly, we’re not talking Goldman Sachs’ league of donors. I’ll have to check to see if I’ve got all the right “Roger Cunninghams” and “Richard Caplans,” but the tool is an easy way to filter vast amounts of bulk data to focus on the nitty gritty.

If I turn up anything interesting, I’ll post again.