(Updated 4:45 p.m. ET)
Despite his capacity for self-sabotage and the public shunning of his own party, some well-heeled Republicans continue to believe that it's worth investing in former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's comeback bid in Tuesday's special election for a vacant congressional seat in the Palmetto State.
During the last three weeks of the campaign, the unexpectedly competitive contest in a heavily GOP district between Sanford and Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch has become a magnet for big political spenders. Sanford, attempting a redemption run after a headline-making sex scandal that cost him his ...
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 5/6/2013
NEWS:
- Jonathan Soros, son of famous financier George Soros, spread his political money around throughout 2012 and early 2013. He gave to young House democrats, poured money into his own hybrid PAC, and supported New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's push for public financing of campaigns. (Roll Call)
- A new project from Freedom House and the International Center for Journalists is drawing attention to the continued violence against journalists in Mexico. The crowdsourced mapping project offers a safe and anonymous way to report attacks against journalists bloggers, and others. (Tech President)
- What is Open Data? Palo Alto, CA CIO Jonathan Reichental attempted to outline some of his central ideas at an event late last week, covering topics like machine readability and accountability. (Government Technology)
- Despite a recent GAO Report that lacked any strong conclusions about the effect of the political intelligence industry, the practice is making news in Washington. A small Washington firm, Height Securities, is under scrutiny for an alert it sent out to clients on April first about a coming government decision related to medicare. (Washington Post)
- The sequestration is having an impact on the Library of Congress' efforts to digitize millions of books, images, maps, and more. (New York Times)
- Members of Congress normally deal with some strong disclosure rules related to gifts that they receive, but they're allowed to get waivers for special occaisions. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) recently made use of the exemption when celebrating his wedding. (Roll Call)
A New Focus on Sunlight’s APIs
At Sunlight we're immensely proud of our community of API users and today we're launching a new section of our website to learn more about them, see how others use the data and use the snazzy query builder.
Continue readingIn the Kentucky Derby of political giving, one horse laps the field
While bettors will be spending big on the thoroughbreds racing to win Saturday's 139th Kentucky Derby, many of the horses' owners have been making their own high-stakes bets — the kind that could pay off in much more than roses.
Continue readingOpenGov Voices: Lack of Transparency and Citizen Disenfranchisement
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the guest blogger and those providing comments are theirs alone and do not reflect the opinions of the Sunlight Foundation or any employee thereof. Sunlight Foundation is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information within the 
guest blog.
Dan Moulthrop is a co-founder of The Civic Commons, a social media environment group designed explicitly for civil civic dialogue and brings communities together with conversation and emerging technology based in Cleveland, Ohio He is also CEO of The City Club of Cleveland, the Citadel of Free Speech for more than 100 years.
I've long been obsessed with maps. When I was a kid on road trips, I loved tracking our journey in the road atlas. When I lived in Brooklyn in the 90s, I covered my bedroom walls with AAA state maps with my then-recent three month cross country journey traced out on them. Maps always provided me with a way to locate myself in space and a way to understand my trajectory. In the last couple of years, I've started to see them differently. The maps I'm thinking about don't locate us or help us see a trajectory of growth or journey. They trap us. Specifically, they keep us attached to elected representatives that don't often have our best interests in mind.
Residents of Cleveland, Ohio, were just subjected to a redistricting exercise. I say subjected to because very few of them participated in the exercise. The last census triggered a charter-mandated remapping of ward boundaries, and, given the population decline, city council is to be reduced by two seats. The need for this had been in front of city leaders since census results were released, but there was no comprehensive, strategic public engagement process to discuss what factors ought to be taken into account as new ward configurations were considered, no draft maps shared with the public, no clear process for providing input. Instead, Cleveland's city council president worked with consultants behind closed doors and met with his colleagues on council individually to make deals and divvy up the city's population.
It has been said that we live in a time when voters don't pick their representatives; rather representatives pick their voters. In this case, the council president appears to have picked voters for his colleagues.
I don't actually know if this map will be good for Cleveland or not. Nobody knows. Those who voted for the first version of the map have had to backstep a little when Cleveland's small but significant Hispanic community challenged the map as a possible violation of the Voting Rights Act. Now that that detail has been addressed, for all we know, this could actually be the best map we ever could have hoped for. Here's the problem: we'll never know.
Continue readingEvaluating Municipal Lobbying Data: Philadelphia
“Consistent” is not the first word one would use to describe the landscape of lobbying data released by municipalities. As revealed by our research, the formats and range of information local governments collect and disclose about lobbying activity varies quite a bit from one community context to another. After exploring the best practices for collecting and releasing this information, we created and recently published a Municipal Lobbying Data Guidebook. This guide addresses not only what kinds of information should be included in an ideal lobbying dataset, but also information about how that data should be collected and shared, regulated, and examples of the impact of having this information made available in an open way. (Something we’ll continue to explore in future posts.)
So how do municipalities measure up to these standards? We took a close look at three cities -- Austin, Chicago, and Philadelphia -- to explore what they’re doing well and where their lobbying disclosure can improve.
We've already covered Austin and Chicago. Now we turn to look at Philadelphia, which is a unique case in this set of cities.
WHAT COULD (AND WAS SUPPOSED TO) BE
Philadelphia's online lobbying disclosures were never supposed to look like they do now. When the lobbying disclosure law passed in 2010, the city contracted for software that would utilize electronic filing and share the information in a searchable format -- a requirement under the new law. The city had to cancel that contract, though, when the vendor failed to produce working software for the lobbying portal.The city's current lobbying disclosure website is a temporary solution. Philadelphia recently put out a notice of intent to contract* for a new website with Acclaim Systems Inc -- the same company working on the state of Pennsylvania's lobbying disclosure system. The RFP for Philadelphia's new website includes a call for the use of unique ID numbers for filers; a way to publish registrations and expense reports "as PDFs and as data to the public searchable site"; user ability to search and download registration and expense reports "easily via the Internet" and to generate PDFs for each of these; and to create an online directory of lobbyists with photos.
The goal is essentially to have Philadelphia's website meet the two stipulations called for in the lobbying disclosure law: e-filing and searchability. The RFP calls for a system "that can be designed and implemented in a four-month timeframe or less," so if the contract receives final approval soon the site could be up this year.
Having some information available in the meantime is better than having none at all. We evaluate the current website with this in mind and with an eye toward how the next iteration of the website that comes after this placeholder might look.WHAT EXISTS NOW
I. What data is available
Philadelphia links to its lobbying information from a webpage on its Board of Ethics site. It makes registration and reporting forms and instructions available. It also posts some completed lobbying registrations and expense reports.
The lobbying registration forms require the date of registration, the lobbyist name, address, and contact information, details about any affiliated political action committees or candidate political committees, and the name, address, and contact information for any principals or lobbying firms. This level of detail is in line with Sunlight’s Guidebook recommendations.
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 5/3/2013
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- President Obama is notable for his sports watching habits and recently influencers may be taking those predilections into account. Media strategists are offering clients who are looking to target White House officials ESPN as a prime spot for their advertising dollars. (POLITICO)
- After months of speculation President Obama tapped Chicago business baron and major campaign supporter Penny Pritzker to serve as the next secretary of commerce. Pritzker, who is worth north of $1 billion, has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the President's campaigns. (NPR)
- President Obama's FCC nominee is hearing some criticism from Senators over his past life as a cable and wireless company wireless and blog posts suggesting urging broad regulation in exchange for allowing the, failed, AT&T + T-Mobile merger to proceed. (The Hill)
- The White House released the first version of its We The People API to the public earlier this week. Every petition that garners more than 15o signatures will have its data made available in read-only format. Meanwhile, several interesting projects using We The People data emerged from the same hackathon that launched the API. (Fedscoop, Fedscoop)
- Florida passed the first major changes to its state ethics laws in nearly three decades this week. The state also passed new campaign finance regulations. Both moves can be seen as responses to the Sunshine State's low grades on the State Integrity Investigation. (Public Integrity)
- There are, hopefully, only a few more days of headlines from the wacky race to fill an empty South Carolina House seat. Yesterday held more good news for Elizabeth Colbert Busch, who is the beneficiary of more than $100,000 in late ad spending from the House Majority PAC. The PAC has now spent roughly $400,000 on the race. (Roll Call)
- Meanwhile, the newly minted Republican candidate for the open Massachusetts Senate seat has reaffirmed his opposition to "the peoples pledge" which aims to curb the influence of third party spending. Despite signing the pledge, and asking nicely for him to stop, Democratic candidate Ed Markey was the unwanted beneficiary of major outside outlays by a billionaire environmentalist. (Washington Post)
Calling for Common Sense (and Bulk Data) in California
Will Congress Redo what it Undid on Political Intelligence Firm Disclosures?
The Washington Post reported today that the SEC is issuing subpoenas to investigate the possibility that a “political intelligence” firm... View Article
Continue readingMel Watt’s ties to the banking industry
(CORRECTION: This post has been updated to eliminate the name of the American Bankers' Association's Michael Hunter, incorrectly identified in earlier versions as an alumnus of Watt's office. Hunter worked for former Rep. J.C. Watts, R-Okla.)
Rep. Mel Watt, President Barack Obama's pick to lead the agency that regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, insurers of most of the country's mortgages, is getting strong support from his party's liberal wing despite close ties to an industry with a big stake in how -- or if -- the controversial quasi-government entities are wound down.
The North Carolina ...
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