You should check out
MAPlight.org, another in a wide collection of Web sites that track who gives money to politicians and how that money might influence votes or bill sponsorships.
Not only does this site tell you who has donated money to your local congressional representative, it compares contributions to the voting calendar. So you can see if someone fattened a pol's coffers the day before a big vote.
Here's a video tutorial about the site.
MAPlight.org explains how the site works:
MAPLight.org combines three data sets:
- Bill texts and legislative voting records
- Supporting and opposing interests for each bill
- Campaign contribution data from the Center for Responsive Politics and the National Institute on Money in State Politics
Combining this data makes visible key information that could never before be determined easily. For example:
- Contributions given by interests supporting and opposing each bill.
- Average donations given to legislators voting for or against each bill.
- Timeline of contributions and votes for each bill, graphically identifying when legislators received large donations before or after their vote.
The site used to be known as takebackCA.org but has expanded beyond California.
