Is there a link between donations given and bills passed? MAPLight.org aims to help you find out, giving you the ability to compare contributions with how legislators voted. [Via]
posted by djgh on Aug 15, 2007 - 38 comments

You can probably guess who people like Janeane Garofalo and Ben Stein have given campaign contributions to. But how about Jennifer Garner? Reese Witherspoon? Siegfried and Roy? Karl Malone? The Newsmeat Hall Of Fame has the answers.
posted by SisterHavana on Jul 8, 2004 - 39 comments

The Buying of the President. A look at the special interests who are bankrolling Bush and his Democratic rivals.
posted by homunculus on Jan 26, 2004 - 11 comments

"Clean" Elections Fiasco I have the misfortune to be a voter in Arizona, a state which has instituted a so-called "Clean Elections" system, in which candidates who campaign a certain way qualify to be eligible for funding matching that of other candidates. The goals are to "eliminate special-interests" and "level the playing field", but it has backfired badly. How can I retain my political voice when contributions to my preferred candidate wind up being matched (with taxpayer money) for the other candidates? We're in the middle of a fiscal crisis in this state, and candidates are being funded with millions of dollars of campaign welfare taken from public funds, which (as always) is being used for mudslinging. What part of "Clean" is so confusing? I can only hope that my boy Jeff can work some miracles.
posted by oissubke on Oct 19, 2002 - 10 comments

Open Secrets is a site for election information that takes the term "full disclosure" to the nth level. You can see how much money all the presidential candidates have taken and from whom. You can even do searches for "all the people in a single zip code that gave more than $1,000 to George Bush." And it's not just for would-be presidents, you can see who is filling senator's pockets too (like Philip Morris bankrolling Jesse Helms - big surprise there). It's all information that we deserve to know, and thanks to the web, it's there for the reading.
posted by mathowie on Jul 13, 2000 - 7 comments