The shutdown has been averted. The debt ceiling has been raised. For now. In the process, Congress’ public approval has fallen to around 10 percent – and as low as 5 percent in one poll. But how much do you know about who actually serves in Congress? How do you know who to even disapprove of? Today, we unveil a new interactive tool that will allow you to get to know the U.S. Senate a little better. While it’s easy to focus on prominent Senate leaders like Harry Reid (D-Nev.) or Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) or prominent grandstanders like Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), we think it matters who our 100 senators are: What are their backgrounds? What is their education? What did they do before coming to the Senate? Who do they depend on most to support their campaigns? All of these factors shape how they collectively make decisions. For this reason, we’ve created an interactive tool that allows you to explore the U.S. Senate. You can see how Senators break down across a wide variety of dimensions.
Continue readingToday in #OpenGov 10/22/2013
National News
- The Chamber of Commerce might be butting heads with some of the more conservative members of the Republican Party, but that hasn't stopped the business group from spending lavishly on lobbying. According to recent filings, the Chamber dropped more than $4 million per month over the past quarter to influence the government. (Roll Call)
- Want to get a sense of Twitter's political priorities in advance of their IPO? The company first filed to lobby in July of this year and included a long and varied legislative do to list on their reports. (Roll Call)
- The Census Bureau released an updated schedule for the various economic reports that they normally released but were delayed by the government shutdown. The shutdown will push many of these reports back by several weeks. (Government Executive)
- Intellectual Ventures, accused of being one of the larger patent trolls terrorizing innovators, is stepping up its lobbying in the face of mounting media pressure and movement on the Hill to reform patent laws. (The Hill)
- Kathleen Wynn, the premiere of Ontario, Canada is using the opaque, and costly, cancellation of two gas plants as political cover to push for more government transparency. The politician wrote a rare open letter to citizens pledging to set "the default to open." (The Star)
- With the second anniversary of the Open Government Partnership fast approaching some countries have unfortunate splits between their OGP commitments and their attitudes towards journalists. Many journalists do not know about the OGP, and commitments tend to ignore issues of free speech and media freedoms. (The Guardian)
- This article looks at the growing open data movement in American municipalities through the lens of steps being taken in San Fransisco, including a performance barometer. (The Guardian)
Despite Bloomberg funded ad campaign, Nevada’s Sandoval vetoed gun bill
In Nevada, where a school shooting school shooting today left two dead--including the shooter--and two injured, the governor vetoed a bill last June that would have strengthened background check laws.
Gov. Brian Sandoval, a Republican, rejected the measure despite an advertising blitz by the pro gun control group funded largely by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
The pro-gun control group advertised early and often Las Vegas this year, according to a search on Political Ad Sleuth, the Sunlight tool that tracks spending on political ads. Ads began in March and the most recent one aired ...
Continue readingBiggest players in shutdown drama raised big bucks in Q3
Some of the biggest players in the shutdown drama also saw some of the biggest returns in the third quarter, Sunlight's new Real-Time FEC tracker shows.
Continue readingLouisiana voters kept in the dark on McAllister campaign cash
While state senator Neil Riser and small-business owner Vance McAllister are both crafting their campaign rhetoric to target LA-05's conservative base, the McAllister campaign's failure to file its financial information with the FEC means voters still have no inkling as to who is bankrolling his election efforts.
Continue readingNew Louisville Open Data Policy Insists Open By Default is the Future
On Tuesday, October 15, 2013, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer announced the signing of an open data policy executive order in conjunction with his compelling talk at the 2013 Code for America Summit. In nonchalant cadence, the mayor announced his support for complete information disclosure by declaring, "It's data, man." What's more is this was one of three open data policies signed into law over the last week, the others being California’s West Sacramento and Oakland policies. (For the complete view, see our map of growing policies here.)
The Louisville policy is unique in that hits many of the Sunlight Foundation's Open Data Policy Guidelines rarely touched upon by others, including a strong "open by default" provision, and, like South Bend, IN, roots its basis for affecting the transparency of information disclosure firmly in legal precedent, in this case, the Kentucky Open Meetings and Open Records Act. Doing so further empowers it's "open by default" status. The Louisville policy also provides a clear series of checks and balances to insure information is disclosed by calling for (1) the creation of a comprehensive inventory supported by the letter of the law itself (which we have only seen in the 2013 U.S. federal policy thus far — and which has not yet been implemented), (2) a yearly open data report, and (3) built-in review of the policy itself for the ever-changing information and technology landscape ahead. We have broken out the significance and mechanics of Louisville's policy that support information disclosure further below.
Continue readingToday in #OpenGov 10/21/2013
National News
- Teach For America has grown into a political powerhouse and has the money to back up their policy goals. The group, which sends recent college grads into underfunded public schools for two year stints, has a $100 million endowment, $300 million in yearly revenues, and growing leverage as their alumni take high powered positions and launch innovative ideas. (POLITICO)
- President Obama took a break from one of his favorite activities, raising money, during the government shutdown. But, now that things are back up and running, he's heading to New York to raise money for the DCCC. (Washington Times)
- Meanwhile, the DCCC wasn't feeling so hindered by the potential for a shutdown during September. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had its best non-election year September fundraising haul ever, pulling in $8.4 million as the shutdown grew closer. (National Journal)
- As a number of Balkan countries look to join the EU civil society organizations are pushing their governments, often controlled by a single party, to embrace principles of openness. (SE Times)
- Open data in development projects will not necessarily lead to better outcomes without models to put the data to use. (Open Knowledge Blog)
- As cities increasingly tune in to the advantages of releasing their data openly and in useful and attractive formats they should be thinking about ways to tie all of their various data together to give citizens a picture of the ways that various city data connects down to the neighborhood level. (The Atlantic Cities)
- San Francisco has teamed up with Google.org for a new real-time crisis map that will track a variety of emergency situations as they appear around the city. Crisis Mode is launching in conjunction with SF72, an open sourced platform that provides online resources and updates for emergency preparedness. (Government Technology)
Stockman refunds questionable campaign contributions
For the second time in a week, Rep. Steve Stockman's campaign changes its story to the FEC about questionable campaign contributions.
Continue readingTed Cruz Moves on from Trying to Defund Obamacare to Defending Dark Money
Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) mission to shutter the government in one fell swoop may be (temporarily) over, but that doesn’t mean he’s stopped trying to handcuff federal agencies in an effort to impose his own agenda on their work. His most recent effort involves preventing a Senate vote on the nomination of Tom Wheeler for FCC chairman because he wants to get Wheeler’s commitment that he will not use the FCC’s regulatory authority to require disclosure of the dark money behind political ads.
In a statement, Senator Cruz’s office announced, “Yes, the Senator is holding the nominee until he gets answers to his questions regarding Mr. Wheeler’s views on whether the FCC has the authority or intent to implement the requirements of the failed Congressional DISCLOSE Act. Mr. Wheeler had previously declined to give specific answers, but as he’s now expressed his readiness to revisit the Senator’s questions, the Senator hopes to communicate with him soon.”
Good luck to Mr. Wheeler during that conversation.
Stockman campaign may have broken campaign finance law
By re-attributing the source of some $15,000 in campaign contributions from relatives of congressional staffers to the staffers themselves, the campaign of Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, has raised more questions--and a potential violation of campaign finance laws--than it has answered.
Federal election law prohibits contributions from government employees to their employers, including members of Congress. Violators face fines and potential prison sentences of up to three years.
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