In the 2012 election 28 percent of all disclosed political contributions came from just 31,385 people. In a nation of 313.85 million, these donors represent the 1% of the 1%, an elite class that increasingly serves as the gatekeepers of public office in the United States.
One way that Washington lobbyists build and maintain relationships is through campaign contributions. So it’s no surprise to see 894 individuals employed at lobbying and public relations firms show up among the 31,385 biggest individual donors – a group we named “the 1% of the 1%” after the share of the U.S. population that they represent. Although not all of these individuals are registered as lobbyists, they all work in the lobbying industry. For shorthand, we simply call them “lobbyists” because their profession is influencing government (for more details on how we classified them, see our methodology section at the end of this post). Though these lobbyists make up only 2.8 percent of the 1% of the 1% and only 2.0 percent of the donations (they gave a combined $34.1 million), their importance in the Washington ecosystem makes them worth a closer look. In some ways lobbyists are similar to other 1% of the 1% donors. The median donation among lobbyists was $27,540, as compared to $26,584 for all of the 1% of the 1%. Lobbyists in the 1% of the 1% are 80.3 percent male, a little more than the 71.8 percent male for the entire 1% of the 1%. These 1% of the 1% lobbyists gave a combined $34.1 million in the 2012 election cycle. Continue reading
Congrats to Knight News Challenge Winners!
It’s fantastic to see the eight winning projects awarded more than $3.2 million today from the Knight News Challenge on... View Article
Continue readingThe 1% of the 1% by state
This table contains data on members of the 1% of the 1%, organized by state. For each column, the colors correspond to the size of the given indicator, with the darkest green referring to the ten states with the largest values, and the lightest green to the ten lowest. Click on a column name to re-sort the table by that column.
Continue readingContribution profiles for top House leaders
These House leaders all receive more money from the 1% of the 1% than they do from small donors (under $200). With the exception of John Boehner, the U.S. House leaders we profiled received roughly between 6 times and 16 times more money from the 1% of the 1% than they did from small donors.
Continue readingWhere the 1% of the 1% money goes
The figures below break the 1% of the 1% up by deciles, going more in depth for the top decile (the top 3,139 donors) and then in more depth again for the top 314 donors (the 1% of the 1% of the 1%). The major takeaway is that the biggest donors are the biggest donors because they give primarily to super PACs. Since individual aggregate contributions directly to candidates, parties and committees are legally capped at $117,000 (though some seem to ignore this), to be in the top 314 donors (minimum total of $304,000) requires at least some giving to super PACs, which allow for unlimited contributions.
Continue readingNew G8 Open Data Charter
The G8 countries today released a new declaration, and with it an Open Data Charter policy paper, which together constitute... View Article
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 6/18/2013
by Carrie Tian, policy intern
- A California budget facing a vote on Friday would save millions - at the cost of crippling existing public record laws. The budget would remove the need for agencies to provide documents electronically and respond to records requests within 10 days. California would no longer need to reimburse its agencies for compliance with the laws, but right to know advocates worry about the impact on citizens and members of the media. (LA Times)
- How many times can a man retire? At least 3, according to Senator Cornyn (R-TX), who currently collects three separate pensions for his stints as district judge, Texas Supreme Court justice, and state attorney general. Fiscal watchdog groups blast this practice as "double-dipping." (National Journal)
- Czech PM Petr Necas resigned on Sunday, with the rest of his government to follow suit shortly. Necas stepped down after his chief of staff, Jana Nagyoya, was charged with bribery and ordering surveillance of people including Necas's wife. (techPresident)
- George Soros might be one of the nation's most prominent liberal donors, but his foundation donates to dozens of conservative organizations each year. Soros Fund Management promises to match all of its employees' charitable donations, resulting in the firm giving hundreds of thousands to religious organizations in 2012. (Public Integrity)
- In a shocker of the century, the government is inefficient ...but wait, we now have numbers measuring exactly how much inefficiency we're talking about. A new report by Project Management Institute show that the federal sector loses $148 million for every billion it spends. The private sector is better, though not by much, losing $135 million for every billion spent. (Fierce Government)
- Billionaire Ron Perelman has often brought political friends into companies he controls, including Nancy Reagan and Henry Kissinger. The latest through his revolving door is Diana Cantor, wife of Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, to the board of directors of Revlon. (National Journal)
Possible impacts of the Czech political turmoil
The Czech Republic has been facing a rather earth-shattering corruption scandal that is probably one of the most revolutionary episodes in... View Article
Continue readingAnnouncing a new grant to Sunlight from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Sunlight is very proud to share the news that the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation will award us $4 million over the next three years to increase our ability to make more government data more accessible, especially on the state and local level. With this new support, we will focus more on making more government data accessible to more and more people -- not just journalists and experts. This new funding from the Knight Foundation will undoubtedly go a long way toward giving us more resources to make online government transparency a reality, enabling us to continue to build tools to bring that data to the public and share with the growing open government community lessons learned from our work.
G8 countries must work harder to open up essential data
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.
Open data and transparency will be one of the three main topics at the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland next week. Today transparency campaigners released preview results from the global Open Data Census showing that G8 countries still have a long way to go in releasing essential information as open data.
The Open Data Census is run by the Open Knowledge Foundation, with the help of a network of local data experts around the globe. It measures the openness of data in ten key areas including those essential for transparency and accountability (such as election results and government spending data), and those vital for providing critical services to citizens (such as maps and transport timetables). Full results for the 2013 Open Data Census will be released later this year.
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