Already the Sunlight Mash-Up Labs announced in May is striding toward my fantasy of one-click political influence disclosure. Last week, Lab Co-director, Greg Elin, guided me through the results of a week of "hacking" with Mike Krejci, lead programmer for The Institute of Money in State Politics. Supported by a small grant from the Sunlight Foundation, Greg went to Portland, Oregon and helped Mike begin work on The Institute's "web services API".
Continue readingA New Kind of Politics
Jimmy Wales -- the founder of Wikipedia -- has launched a new wiki called Campaigns Wikia -- a wiki that has the modest goal of inventing an era of participatory politics. If anyone can do it, I'd bet on Wales' to galvanize it.
Wales' rationale is sound even if the task is huge.
"Blog and wiki authors are now inventing a new era of media, and it is my belief that this new media is going to invent a new era of politics. If broadcast media brought us broadcast politics, then participatory media will bring us participatory politics....
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Announcing Online Poll
Today, Sunlight is posting an online poll asking the public if Congress is doing enough to address ethics and lobbying reform in the wake of recent scandals. We've posted one serious question and another one with a touch of humor: do you think it more likely that there would be a live sighting of Elvis before the current congressional leadership showed real leadership on the need for reform? (The poll is viewable here, and bloggers are encouraged to copy the source code and post it on their own sites.)
Why the cynical question? Here's a brief guide to the issue.
Continue readingNot Shutting Down Quite Yet
Not everyone is quite ready to gear down for the long July 4th weekend. Our colleagues in Montana at the Institute on State Money and Politics, for example, just published their first newsletter. Check it out here.
The Institute -- also known as the DataShaq -- is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that compiles and analyzes campaign contribution reports for state-level candidates, political party committees and ballot issue committees. Their database of more than 15 million records is available on their Website, and is easily searchable within a given state and election year, as well as across the 50 states and multiple election cycles. It provides a wealth of information on the forces behind campaign contributions and public-policy discussions in the states. If you don't know their work, and are involved in state-based advocacy, you should. Greg Elin, who heads the Sunlight Labs, has been working with them for most of this week to develop their first APIs. Sounds like that work has gone extremely well.
Progress Back at the Ranch
While I've been here in New Mexico on vacation for the ten days (think hiking at Bandelier National Monument, off-roading in the Sangre de Cristo mountains, playing Ansel Adams at White Sands National Monument, visiting Georgia O"Keeefe's home and studio in Abiquiu, two nights at the Rodeo in Santa Fe, etc. -- our recent grantees over at Room Eight have been busy moving forward to expand their blog's reporting of their NY Congressional delegation.
Continue readingIt Is About the Need for Reform
The Sunday Times editorial eloquently made Sunlight's point when it comes to the "scandal" of Dennis Hastert's earmarking for a local highway. It's the system that's rotten. Hastert is only one of the latest -- and most powerful -- to be caught with his hand in the veritable cookie jar. No doubt there are other stories to come along the same lines.
Hastert's early promises to clean up the system have proved to be nothing but empty rhetoric. Maybe, now that he's in the ethics spotlight, he'll be galvanized to action. The Hastert story that Bill Allison broke on his blog -- Under the Influence -- is the tip of the iceberg. As more stories are developed by bloggers, citizen muckrakers and the mainstream media, the pressure will mount to change the system in significant ways. And the good news is that none of us will be lulled into thinking that things have been improved if Congress moves forward on its current "reform" path.
Continue readingAh, The Value of Databases
Not much attention was paid to a new report issued by Rep. Henry Waxman on government contracting.
Bottom line? The value of federal contracts has grown 86 percent between 2000 and 2005, going from $203 billion in 2000 to $377.5 billion. Waxman's team studied more than 500 sources, including government and independent agency reports, audits, and investigations to prepare the report. Waxman's staff also interviewed government procurement experts and relied on data from the Federal Procurement Data System to reach its conclusions, the report said. Sounds like pretty thorough research to me.
Disclosure vs. Systemic Reform: A False Choice
In a column in The Hill Meredith McGehee sets up a strawman -- that disclosure will solve all the problems of the money and influence culture -- and then tries to knock it down. (She never mentions who the current advocates are for that position, actually.) But it seems to me that every time she tries to makes her point she makes the opposite one. The most salutary change made in recent years, e.g. a ban on soft money, would not have occurred without disclosure, however inadequate and slow it was.
Of course, disclosure alone won't cure the system of its ills. Who would believe that? But what will? Surely full public financing would go along way toward that end, but until the political will is marshaled to make that happen here in Washington (it's already the law in Conn ecticut, Maine and Arizona) we need to know more about what lawmakers and lobbyists are up to -- faster, more comprehensively, and in searchable formats that are available on the Internet. Human nature being what it is, it will certainly make lawmakers more cautious. Who knows? Maybe it will stop some of the worst practices.
Continue readingMr. Smith Goes to Washington
The Hastert story that Bill Allison broke last week has clearly taken on a life of its own. Maybe that's because, as a conservative friend pointed out, it rings sounds so much like a scene from the 1939 film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
Here's the relevant dialogue from the movie. Read it and judge for yourself.
PAINE
Jim--suppose we didn't try to go
through with this Willet Creek Dam--
suppose we postpone it until the
next session of Congress--or drop it
altogether--
TAYLOR
That'd be a crime--after all this
work--getting it buried in this
Deficiency Bill as nice as you please--
approved--all ready to roll--
PAINE
How much does the Willet Dam mean to
you, Jim?
TAYLOR
Joe--I've got a lot of people to
take care of in this State.
PAINE
I know, but is it worth the risk of
a scandal now that a new man is going
to the Senate?
TAYLOR
Joe--what's the matter with you--
where you're concerned, I wouldn't
take the slightest risk--'specially
now after the great reputation you've
made in the Senate. Why, look at
this campaign I've started for you
in all my papers. You're the logical
man from the West on the National
ticket--at the convention, anything
can happen--
There is a pause while Joe looks at a newspaper.
TAYLOR
Joe, that's coming a long way in
twenty years since I met you
practicing law down there in Main
Street.
PAINE
Jim--if what you say about the future
is remotely possible--why not do as
I say--drop things like this dam?
TAYLOR
We can't drop it now, Joe. We bought
the land around this Dam and we're
holding it in dummy names. If we
drop it or delay it--we are going to
bring about investigations, and
investigations will show that we own
that land and are trying to sell it
to the State under phony names. No,
Joe, in my judgment the only thing
to do is push this Dam through--and
get it over with.
Revolving Door Database
There's a terrific front page story today in the New York Times on the revolving door between former employees of the Department of Homeland Security (and other domestic security positions in the government) and the private sector. I was surprised -- but not shocked -- at the large numbers of high level officials who've served at this still young government agency who are now reaping big bucks in the private sector. The Times has posted the full list of former domestic security officials and where they are now working that they used for their study. but alas, it's not in a searchable form. That's a lost opportunity for others who might want to take what they've learned thus far and dig deeper.
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