Taxpayers for Common Sense, a grantee of the Sunlight Foundation, last week released the first of two reports on what can only be described as the good, the bad, and the ugly of earmark reform. Their first analysis gives a roundup of what actions the House took and didn't take.
TCS gives credit to the House for the volume of information now available but takes the House to task for the way it has provided it. The data dumps allowed TCS to get its its excellent databases up before the final vote on almost every bill but frankly they had to work too hard to do it. I mean, if the House and Senate are going to provide this infomation why not just do it in a database form themselves? Why do nonprofits have to take raw data and put the data in a form so real people can actually use it?
Continue readingSunlight in the Garden State
Here's a politician -- New Jersey Assemblyman Jim Whelan - who appears to understand the value of transparency. He recently introduced a bill in the New Jersey state legislature that would require the online disclosure of public records local New Jersey towns, school districts and state agencies.
Continue readingWidgets, Blidgets and Nods
As we recently reported, MAPLight.org and OpenCongress.org recently launched widgets to make it easy for anyone to keep track of the presidential money race, current bills and legislative issues on their site or blog. What good is political information if it's relegated to to just one Web site? As John wrote on the Open House Project blog, widgets and other new forms of data visualization help spread the information further and faster.
There's clear interest in adopting these widgets to surface information about the federal government in new ways and we love some of these early adopters. TechRepublican just recently incorporated the MAPLight.org presidential fundraising widget on its site and NTEN is planning on using
using MAPLight.org's new API.
Corruption Round Up
Josh Marshall's intrepid pursuit of truth and justice (and yeah, of corruption in high places too) is really unparalleled in the blogosphere. Today he provides a nifty summary of the all the corruption scandals in Congress this year. Read it and keep digging.
And we thought that the last Congress was the most corrupt in recent memory!
Continue readingThere’s Gold In Those Databases
Brody Mullins had a terrific story yesterday in the Wall Street Journal that raises questions about whether six members of the Paw family, who live in a modest neighborhood in San Francisco and who list their occupation as "gift shop owner," could possibly make $45,000 in political contributions to Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.
Obviously digging into numerous databases, Mullins discovered that the Paws live in a modest 1,280 square foot house that they recently refinanced for $270,000. The head of the household is a mail carrier earning $49,000 a year. His wife is a homemaker. Mullins also figured out that the Paw family contributions are nearly identical to donations made by a wealthy New Yorker -- Norman Hsu -- who once listed the Paw family home as his own address. Hsu is a big fund raiser for Clinton.
How does this much money come from a family that doesn't appear to have these kinds of financial resources? It raises questions in the minds of many campaign finance experts (including yours truly) as to whether they were illegal contributions.Were the Paws "reimbursed" for their generous contributions to Clinton by Hsu? Hsu and the Paws deny any wrong doing. But it sure makes you wonder.
Given the crush for cash by all the presidential candidates, there are lots of stories like this in these databases.
Update: The Washington Post reports that Hilliary Clinton sees no reason to return the contributions by either Hsu or the Paw Family. Further Update: After reports surfaced in the LA Times today that there is an outstanding warrant out of Hsu, the Clinton campaign returns his money.
Continue readingFAQ Update
Sunlight is updating our FAQs. I want to make sure we have your questions answered. So, what do you want to know about us beyond our criteria for being considered for a grant and who gives money to us? Leave your questions, and if we haven't thought of them already, we will try to include them in our updated post FAQ section.
Continue readingTa Da: Interview with Greg Elin
Greg Elin -- Sunlight's Chief Data Architect -- did a fascinating interview with Jon Udell last week. I have the daily benefit of Greg's insights and so I want to share this very insightful interview so you can too.
Jon has blogged about the interview here. Udell is an author, information architect, software developer, and groupware evangelist himself. He writes a monthly column for the O'Reilly Network. It's worth a regular read.
Update:
SOP. No Email Address
I was in Louisville over the weekend and had a chance introduction to freshman Rep. John Yarmuth. Even though our families have been acquaintances for years, I am pretty certain this is the first time we've met, even though we both grew up there. I told him about Sunlight and suggested we get together when he returns to Washington so I could tell him more.
To make a note about following up, I just pulled out the business card that he gave me -- standard issue no doubt. Guess what? No email address!
It's little stuff like that that reminds me just how Congress has insulated itself from the public and 21st century technology. I'm betting on people like Yarmuth to change that.
Continue readingDisclosure is Step One to Earmark Accountability
Friday's edition of The New York Times ran a piece by Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) where he brags on passing earmark transparency and makes the case that disclosure is reform. We agree. If disclosure works as it should kudos are in order for all Members of Congress of both parties that supported this key reform.
Emanuel's take on earmarks is close to my own. Earmarks themselves are not necessarily bad way to allocate federal money, but lack of transparency and accountability about them has been a huge problem. "There was no opportunity to review either their sponsorship or their merit before their passage," Emanuel wrote.
Continue readingHe Will Come, If They Build it
Talking Points Memo's Muckraker has a stunning post from Laura McGann and Paul Kiel about U.S. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) and his cross-country money fundraising tour. In 2005, a huge transportation bill was being assembled in Congress, and Young, as chair of the House Transportation Committee, used the opportunity to travel the country reaping in campaign cash. Developers and other business executives from Florida to Wisconsin turned the famous line from the film "Field of Dreams" on its head, "If he comes (and we give him loads of cash), they will build it."
A $40,000 fundraiser in Florida resulted in funding for an interchange. A series of contributions totaling $22,000 from a Wisconsin trucking company executive and his associates resulting in the chairman inserting favorable trucking legislation in the bill. Arkansans contributed $66,000 to Young and were rewarded with a $72 million extension of an interstate. Also in Arkansas, Wal-Mart's PAC and execs gave Young $14,000 and suddenly a $35 million widening of the street leading to Wal-Mart's headquarters in Bentonville found its way into the bill. And the New Jersey Alliance for Action held a luncheon for Young, where he collected $29,500 in contributions. The Garden State was rewarded with 179 earmarks totaling $550 million, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense. Now that's a lot of action!I don't know what databases TPM used to explore these connections beyond those of earmarks at Taxpayers for Common Sense, but I'd wager they were looking at numerous ones at the Center for Responsive Politics too. There's gold in those numbers.
Obviously, this type of legal bribery is not unique to Young. But it is shocking, nonetheless, when it's exposed in all of its gore. The temptations are great to misuse the power that resides with committee chairs. This is why openness and transparency is key to keeping Congressional leaders honest. We hope the new earmark disclosure requirements help. Congress can and should take other important steps. Both parties, on taking control of Congress, pledged to end corruption. But history has shown the temptations too enticing to resist. Transparency is the means for Congress to protect itself from...Well, itself.
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