Block party!

October 27, 2004 11:34 AM

Find out about political donors in your neighborhoodFundrace Block Party searches political donor databases and, with the input of your address and zip code, will give you a map (and spreadsheet if you like) which tells you the names and addresses of your neighbors who have supported national political candidates, and how much they contributed. You can use this information to have a block party!

Although I think this is way cool (I'm surrounded by 51 contributors to democrats and only 11 to republicans), this also struck me as a bit scary from the privacy perspective (I now know who is giving money to the whom, and where they live). Who's in *your* neighborhood? (via kottke)
posted by jasper411 (28 comments total)

Awesome. Of the 89 folks listed near my house, the total Kucinich donations were over four times that of those for Bush. Kerry and the DNC are in the lead, but I was surprised by the amount given to Dean.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 11:48 AM on October 27, 2004

Also discussed here: 1, 2
posted by blue mustard at 11:54 AM on October 27, 2004

There was not a single RNC contributor in my entire zip code. The neighbor I thought was a staunch republican is apparently a closet Democrat, because she gave several thousand bucks to the DNC. The most radical contributors were the ones that gave less than $100 to Al Sharpton or Carol Mosely-Braun.

Have I mentioned I love my neighborhood.

I love being nosey.
posted by Pollomacho at 11:54 AM on October 27, 2004

There was not a single RNC contributor in my entire zip code. The neighbor I thought was a staunch republican is apparently a closet Democrat, because she gave several thousand bucks to the DNC. The most radical contributors were the ones that gave less than $100 to Al Sharpton or Carol Mosely-Braun.

Have I mentioned I love my neighborhood?

I love being nosey.
posted by Pollomacho at 11:54 AM on October 27, 2004

That's wierd, I only hit post once, after I'd changed the . to a ? but I got both versions posted.
posted by Pollomacho at 11:56 AM on October 27, 2004

previously on MeFi here and here
posted by josephtate at 11:57 AM on October 27, 2004

doh! blue mustard beat me to it.
posted by josephtate at 11:59 AM on October 27, 2004

This is an excellent resource for Halloween. Why TP randomly when you can target that $2000 Bush donor?
posted by Mayor Curley at 12:05 PM on October 27, 2004

Wow ... what an odd coincidence. The owners of the local theatre chain that was unable to book "Fahrenheit 9/11" or "Bowling for Columbine" are BIG Republican contributers. What are the odds? Wonder what would happen if someone taped a printout of this on their doors or on the various nearby kiosks downtown.
posted by RavinDave at 12:05 PM on October 27, 2004

Sorry for the double post. I thought it was cool enough that it was probably previously mentioned, but several searches yielded nothing. What did you guys search on to find the previous posts?
posted by jasper411 at 12:11 PM on October 27, 2004

Um, quite bold of you to post your home address on the front page.
posted by grateful at 12:12 PM on October 27, 2004

Hmmm, a $1000 donor to the DNC lives not too far from me (in Portland, OR). Name: Todd Haynes. Did I just stumble upon his address, me, a budding screenwriter?
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 12:20 PM on October 27, 2004

Grateful - it's not my actual address. It's a fake one that's near me.
posted by jasper411 at 12:22 PM on October 27, 2004

I'm surrounded by Republicans.

But then, I knew that.
posted by infidelpants at 12:45 PM on October 27, 2004

strangeleftydoublethink - yeah, Beverley Hills is kind of fun, too
posted by ntk at 1:21 PM on October 27, 2004

Surprisingly my neighborhood is pretty evenly mixed in terms of democrat/republican and I live in a republican stronghold. What's really surprising is the size of the donations.

Dems came out early (Clark, Lieberman, Graham) but haven't followed up with Kerry/DNC donations. Of course on the other side it was a 1 ass horse race.
posted by m@ at 1:21 PM on October 27, 2004

My neighborhood in Florida (where my parents live, which I just moved out of) is solidly Republican, with only one Democratic donor. My neighborhood in Brooklyn is solid Democratic, with only two Republican donors -- and a LOT more donors overall. In fact, I was stunned to see the low number of donations in my Florida neighborhood, considering the amount of money flying around down there, and the high numbers of donors here in Brooklyn, in a fairly low-income neighborhood...
posted by logovisual at 1:28 PM on October 27, 2004

Beverley Hills is kind of fun, too

Those crazy Hiltons just can't decide. $25k to RNC, $25k to DNC, $2k to GWB and $1k to......Dick Gephardt? Where's the parity Willie B?

Grammatical question, while I'm at it: Ms. William B. Hilton kind of defeats the purpose of Ms., doesn't it?
posted by m@ at 1:31 PM on October 27, 2004

Bill Gates gave to Bush
posted by jasper411 at 1:38 PM on October 27, 2004

What did you guys search on to find the previous posts?


search fundrace.org
posted by jpoulos at 1:45 PM on October 27, 2004

jpoulos - I am *so* embarrassed! I had stopped using the mf search because it always used to time out on me. Strange - the google search for fundrace.org yields nothing.
posted by jasper411 at 1:56 PM on October 27, 2004

My neighborhood is full of commie freedom-haters.

Love it.
posted by adampsyche at 1:58 PM on October 27, 2004

jasper411: Bill Gates gave to Bush
That's OK. Warren Buffet gave to Kerry and Clark (#7)
posted by zedbends at 2:11 PM on October 27, 2004

This actually ensures that I will never give money to any political candidate. WAY to weird to see this kind of information about my neighbors, and to know that they could easily get the same information about me.
posted by pomegranate at 3:38 PM on October 27, 2004

It’s kind of surprising, here in eastern Washington I figured I’d be buried surround by Bush supporters, but it’s pretty much an even split.
posted by Tenuki at 4:09 PM on October 27, 2004

Yes, it might be weird, but it's necessary. You need to know who are funding these politicians, and the address is necessary as a disambiguation tool.
posted by calwatch at 9:25 PM on October 27, 2004

Hmmmm...

What I find most interesting is that I gave both to the Dean campaign and the DNC and I'm not listed on here.
posted by anastasiav at 7:54 AM on October 28, 2004

People named John Kerry vs. people named George Bush
posted by turaho at 9:21 AM on October 28, 2004