Sunlight is extremely happy to formally announce today an investment of $2 million from Omidyar Network, a mission-based organization established by Pam and Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay. This is the second such grant Sunlight received from Omidyar Network.
Omidyar Network's investment will support Sunlight's operations and grant-making to organizations that create "Web 2.0" tools that make information about the workings of Congress and the influence of money in politics more accessible to citizens. Since our founding in 2006, Sunlight has awarded more than $3.1 million to organizations who use the Internet to make Congress more open and accountable to the public. Read the full press release here.
We are also pleased to formally announce that Lawrence Lessig, renowned expert in intellectual property and Stanford University Law Professor, has joined our Advisory Board.
Round and Round They Go
Earlier this week, CorpWatch published a fascinating article by investigative journalist Tim Shorrock on a new and rapidly growing side of the military-industrial complex: space-age, technology-driven intelligence capabilities. The article centers on Steven Cambone, a former high-raking official in the U.S. Department of Defense now turned defense contractor, and how he personifies the world of high tech intelligence gathering where the distinctions between private industry and government are increasingly virtual.
Cambone has been a longtime associate of Donald Rumsfeld , under whose tenure he served as the Pentagon's top intelligence officer. In March 2003, he became the first Under-Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. It was in this role that he and Rumsfeld succeeded at transforming the Pentagon's acquisitions away from the traditional large weapon systems like aircraft carriers "and radically increased its purchases of space-age war technologies such as communication systems, sensors, robots, low-flying satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles," Shorrock writes. When Rumsfeld stepped down in late 2006, Cambone followed soon after. He landed as vice president for strategy with QinetiQ North America, a British-owned, defense-intelligence contractor that specializes in just the type of whiz-bang gadgets and systems he and Rumsfeld placed in the Pentagon's shopping cart.
Continue readingWidget Week
Earlier this week we talked about all the cool new applications over at OpenCongress.org (which are really taking off), and today we're delighted to tell you that MAPLight.org has produced some new widgets that allow you to track fundraising for over 1,500 congressional candidates. These widgets are perfect for blogs, social networking pages, and personal Web sites, and they are completely customizable according to the candidates you are interested in.
The congressional money race widgets follow MAPLight.org's August release of presidential money race widgets that allow users to track funds raised by presidential candidates.
Continue readingNew Boss Same as the Old Boss
A "two-fer" is how U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) termed his $6 million earmark for a defense contractor in his home state. He placed the earmark in a defense appropriations bill that became law in November. Despite not being requested by the Department of Defense, the funds are going for unmanned military aircraft research and development. John Pruett at POGO's blog called it "Wicker's Unmanned Aerial Pork." By terming it a two-fer, Wicker was bragging how his actions accomplished the duel goals of supporting national defense and job-creation back home. What he didn't say is that his top campaign contributor was being rewarded handsomely in the deal as well. That's the real "two-fer."
Continue readingIndian Gambling Scandal Redux?
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported recently about a curious case involving four California Indian gambling interests and how they obtained federal approval for a major and lucrative expansion of their operations. The paper described the incident a "major embarrassment" for the U.S. Department of the Interior and a "potential scandal unfolding from within."
Four tribes had been pushing legislation in the California state legislature to ratify a major expansion of their gaming operations. Specifically, they are hoping to gain approval to increase dramatically the number of slot machines at their casinos, constituting "one of the largest gambling expansions in state history," according to The Union-Tribune. It would also make the casinos some of the largest in the country, and the tribes would be looking at huge future profits. A group of gambling opponents, No on the Unfair Gambling Deals, filed an initiative that is forcing a February 5th statewide vote that if passes will nullify legislation that ratified the agreements. In September, despite the pending referendum, California's secretary of state, saying that state law requires it, sent the agreements via Federal Express to the Interior Department for approval.
And this is where it gets really interesting.
Continue readingNew Insanely Useful P2P Features from OpenCongress.org
With Congress returning to start a new session, our friends at OpenCongress – a project of the Sunlight Foundation and the Participatory Politics Foundation – are making it easier than ever to track and rate what’s happening on Capitol Hill and organize support for the legislation and issues you care about.
It has never been easier to track and now rate what’s happening in your government. And it’s never been easier to meet friends and organize support for the legislation and issues you care about.
We’re very excited to unveil My OpenCongress – the first-ever social network designed for people who care about Congress. This is very cool: My OpenCongress provides a personalized view of all the information you want about the laws being made in Washington. It’s an easy-to-use, peer-to-peer way of sharing the most useful information about Congress, perfect for bloggers and membership groups. And if you want to organize a call-in day to let Congress know what you think, you can easily get in touch with other constituents in your district and mobilize your wider friends network.
Electronic Filing in Connecticut
The Hartford Courant editorializes today about Connecticut's elections commission's new website that promises significant gains in regard to political transparency for the state. The commission was given the responsibility of designing an electronic campaign reporting system for candidates for state office, PACs and party committees. Now, seeing who has donated money to state candidates will be as simple as online shopping, as The Courant reported last week. "Disclosure is meaningless if the information is not readily accessible, searchable, sortable and easily understood," as the commission's director was quoted. Amen. Their new database enables candidates, PAC and political party committee chairs and treasurers to electronically submit campaign finance statements and other required information.
The Courant called on the commission to take further steps for transparency. The current law requires only statewide candidates who raise more than $250,000 have to file electronically. Those who do not meet that high threshold, which includes most of the members of the state legislature, are required only to file paper reports. And the editors called the General Assembly to amend the state's campaign finance law, passed legislatively in 2005, to require electronic filing by all serious candidates for state office and PACs.
Continue readingWatch Washington
All of us at the Sunlight Foundation want to congratulate our grantee Jim Harper for the success of WashingtonWatch.com, a very useful site for citizens eager to follow and impact federal governmental policy. The web traffic of the site has grown 350% over the past 12 months with a half-million citizens visiting the site in 2007. WashingtonWatch.com gives us a unique way to access and share information about individual bills being considered by the Congress and regulatory changes being considered by the federal bureaucracy. The site uses government predictions on the costs or savings from proposed bills and regulations, and then calculates what that means to individual Americans in dollars and cents. With an increasingly Web-enabled citizenry, Jim's site is a valuable tool to not only keep tabs on our nation's business, but allows each of us to have our say. Over the past year, WashingtonWatch.com has added tools which expand its usefulness, including a wiki function allowing the public to post comments on individual bills and federal policy, and a widget that allows bloggers to post vote totals on bills they care about on their blogs.
Continue readingForgive Us For Bragging
We are absolutely delighted to have been profiled in the Chronicle of Philanthropy's edition this week (sub. required, but here's a link on our site) and we wanted you to know about it. The article highlights our distributed research projects, as well as other elements of our work and grant making. It also gives a glimpse of some of our esteemed citizen researchers and some of our grantees. We couldn't do it without both of them.
Continue readingEthics Reforms in Action
The hedge fund industry is courting U.S. Rep. Richard Baker (R-La.) to head their lobbying efforts, according to a report over the weekend from The Washington Post. Baker said he has not decided to take the position as president of the Managed Funds Association (MFA), but did admit that the nearly million-dollar-a-year job did "look very interesting." He informed the House Ethics Committee Friday of his talks with MFA as members of Congress are now required to do as a result of the lobbying law passed last year. Baker is the first member to meet this new requirement.
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