Center For Responsive Politics

This is the fourth part in a series of posts that will explore some of the leading organizations from around the country that are engaged in unearthing and combating the influence of money in the political process.

Role in the Landscape

Center for Responsive Politics operates one of the most prominent money-in-politics websites. OpenSecrets.org contains federal data that includes campaign contributions, outside spending by independent interest groups, lobbyists, revolving door issues, earmarks, and the personal finances of members of Congress and other federal officials.

Contact Information
1101 14th St. NW, Suite 1030
Washington, DC 20005
http://www.opensecrets.org/
(202) 857-0044

Resources they Provide

The entry point for the following resources is: http://opensecrets.org/.

Donor and candidate campaign finance: from the home page, you can simply enter a candidate’s name and quickly get campaign contribution information.

Outside spending: spending by organizations not directly associated with political parties represented over half of all federal campaign spending in 2010. This portal page lists the groups engaged in outside spending, dollar amounts, and the candidates affected by this spending.

Lobbying database: find lobbying activity by client company, lobbyist, or by an industry; this contains reported lobbying expenses.

Revolving door: this contains revolving door data based on individuals or companies (including regulatory bodies like the Security and Exchange Commission).

Earmarks: this contains detailed earmark information and users can explore how specific companies or organizations may have donated money to a legislator responsible for giving that company or organization an earmark.

Personal finances: users of this tool are given a range estimating a lawmaker’s net worth. It also shows their stock holdings, lines of credit, and real estate transactions.

External websites: an API (application programming interface) is made available for bringing data from http://opensecrets.org/ to other websites.

Money in Politics series

  1. Money in Politics (introduction)
  2. Looking Beyond Campaign Contributions
  3. National Institute On Money In State Politics
  4. Center For Responsive Politics
  5. MOOSE: Monied Out-of-State Executives (case study)
  6. Public Campaign
  7. Common Cause
  8. MapLight.org
  9. Sunlight Foundation
  10. Good Jobs First
  11. Disinfecting Banker’s Day on the Hill (case study)
  12. Project Vote Smart
  13. Hitting the Jackpot (case study)
  14. Democracy North Carolina (case study)
  15. Connecticut Citizen Action Group (case study)

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