FYI "Following the Money Trail Online"

[Judyth-2]

It would be really nice to have something like
Maplight.org here in Canada, wouldn't it? It would take
an awful lot of work, though, to compile it from
election financing reports, Hansard and lobbyist
registration data but I think it could be immensely
useful if our politicians knew they were being
scrutinized for pay-for-play voting.

Regards,

Judyth

>Circuits From NYTimes.com
>Thursday, May 24, 2007
>-------------------------------------
>
>[snip]
>To view this e-mail with images, go to:
>http://www.nytimes.com/circuitsemail?8cir&emc=cir
>[snip]
>
>1. From the Desk of David Pogue: Following the Money Trail
>Online
>==========================================================
>
>The first step to solving a problem is recognizing that you
>have one.
>
>That's what I keep telling myself, anyway, to avoid becoming
>depressed by Maplight.org.
>
>It's a new Web site with a very simple mission: to correlate
>lawmakers' voting records with the money they've accepted
>from special-interest groups.
>
>All of this is public information. All of it has been
>available for decades. Other sites, including OpenSecrets.org,
>expose who's giving how much to whom. But nobody has ever
>revealed the relationship between money given and votes cast
>to quite such a startling effect.
>
>If you click the "Video Tour" button on the home page, you'll
>see a six-minute video that illustrates the point. You find
>out that on H.R.5684, the U. S.-Oman Free Trade Agreement,
>special interests in favor of this bill (including
>pharmaceutical companies and aircraft makers) gave each
>senator an average of $244,000. Lobbyists opposed to the bill
>(such as anti-poverty groups and consumer groups) coughed up
>only $38,000 per senator.
>
>Surprise! The bill passed.
>
>If you click "Timeline of Contributions," you find out that -
>- surprise again! -- contributions to the lawmakers surged
>during the six weeks leading up to the vote. On this same
>page, you can click the name of a particular member of
>Congress to see how much money that person collected.
>
>Another mind-blowing example: from the home page, click
>"California." Click "Legislators," then click "Fabian Nunez."
>The resulting page shows you how much this guy has collected
>from each special-interest group -- $2.2 million so far --
>and there, in black-and-white type, how often he voted their
>way.
>
>Construction unions: 94 percent of the time. Casinos: 95
>percent of the time. Law firms: 78 percent of the time. Seems
>as though if you're an industry lobbyist, giving this fellow
>money is a pretty good investment.
>
>A little time spent clicking through to these California
>lawmakers' pages reveals a similar pattern in most of them.
>
>(A few, on the other hand, appear to be deliciously contrary.
>Jim Brulte has accepted over $67,000 from the tobacco
>industry, but hasn't voted in their favor a single time. Is
>that even ethical -- I mean, by the standards of this whole
>sleazy business?)
>
>For some reason, Maplight.org doesn't reveal these "percent
>of the time" figures for United States Congress, only for
>California. You can easily see how much money each member has
>taken, but the column that correlates those figures with
>their voting record is missing.
>
>Now, not all bills exhibit the same money-to-outcome
>relationships. And it's not news that our lawmakers'
>campaigns accept money from special interests. What this site
>does, however, is to expose, often embarrassingly, how that
>money buys votes.
>
>I probably sound absurdly naive here. But truth is, I can't
>quite figure out why these contributions are even legal. Let
>the various factions explain their points till they're blue
>in the face, sure -- but to cut checks for millions of
>dollars?
>
>Maplight.org isn't always easy to figure out, and not all of
>its data is complete. In fact, it's not even evident from the
>list of bills which ones have already been voted on -- a
>distinct disappointment, since the juicy patterns don't
>emerge until the vote is complete.
>
>On the other hand, it's painstakingly non-partisan. And it
>uses very good data; for example, the information on
>contributions comes from the Center for Responsive Politics
>(the nonprofit, nonpartisan research group behind
>OpenSecrets.org), and each special industry's interests (for
>or against each bill) are taken exclusively from public
>declarations of support or opposition (Web sites, news
>articles, Congressional hearings and so on).
>
>Spend a few minutes poking around. Check out a couple of the
>people you voted for. Have a look at how often their votes
>align with the interests of the lobbyists who helped to get
>them elected.
>
>And be glad Maplight.org makes it so easy to spot those
>correlations.
>
>-----
>
>This week's Pogue's Posts blog:
>http://www.nytimes.com/technology/poguesposts/index.html?8cir&emc=cir
>
>-----
>
>Visit David Pogue on the Web at:
>http://www.davidpogue.com
>
>
>[big snip]
>Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

##########################################################
Judyth Mermelstein   "cogito ergo lego ergo cogito..."
Montreal, QC         <[hidden email]>
Canada H4G 1J4       <[hidden email]>
##########################################################
"A word to the wise is sufficient. For others, use more."
"Un mot suffit aux sages; pour les autres, il en faut plus."

[Cory Horner]

Judyth wrote:
> It would be really nice to have something like
> Maplight.org here in Canada, wouldn't it? It would take
> an awful lot of work, though, to compile it from
> election financing reports, Hansard and lobbyist
> registration data but I think it could be immensely
> useful if our politicians knew they were being
> scrutinized for pay-for-play voting.
>  
Hmm... can anyone point to where the election financing reports and
lobbyist registration data for Canada lives?  i'd like to start chewing
on it...

Cheers,
Cory.

[Hugh McGuire]

careful with your teeth:

http://www.elections.ca/scripts/webpep/fin/welcome.aspx?lang=e

to me, perusing some of this data, the surprising thing was how *Ilittle* canadian politics appears to be financially supported. candidates collect thousands, and maybe tens of thousands in funding...but not hundreds and certainly not millions.

 

On May 25, 2007, at 2:24 PM, Cory Horner wrote:

Judyth wrote:

It would be really nice to have something like 

Maplight.org here in Canada, wouldn't it? It would take

an awful lot of work, though, to compile it from

election financing reports, Hansard and lobbyist

registration data but I think it could be immensely

useful if our politicians knew they were being 

scrutinized for pay-for-play voting.

Hmm... can anyone point to where the election financing reports and 

lobbyist registration data for Canada lives?  i'd like to start chewing 

on it...

Cheers,

Cory.

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