For our data experts, a record-setting political fundraising year means more financial reports to collect, standardize, classify and investigate.
Dear Friend of OpenSecrets,
Following the money in politics requires a constant watchdog, but every election year feels like a race for our staff. In order to produce the free public resource that is OpenSecrets.org, thousands of hours of behind-the-scenes work is required to gather money in politics data across all jurisdictions.
For our data experts, a record-setting political fundraising year means more financial reports to collect, standardize, classify and investigate. And gathering state and federal records across the country is no simple task. Some states still key in paper reports; others don’t have bulk data downloads (looking at you, Rhode Island).
All of this work is worth it when the data gets put to good use. And luckily for us (and for U.S. democracy), our readership is filled with users like you, and journalists and researchers who access the OpenSecrets database to produce compelling investigations with evidence from primary research into the money that shapes our government.
Journalists and researchers rely on OpenSecrets’ website, which has been cited over 5,000 times by news organizations so far this year. Every time a story breaks, our inbox fills with requests for custom data. We’ve worked with major publications on abortion rights fundraising data, and released acomprehensive spreadsheet on all gun rights and gun control contributions and lobbying at the federal level.
Here are some other ways our meticulous data has been put to good use:
In partnership with OpenSecrets, The Wesleyan Media Project released a report documenting two million political television ads that ran this cycle, and who’s funding their production. We provide custom research that enables them to include detailed information in their reports, and also work with WMP to capture online ad data, which is made available on OpenSecrets.org.
Our investigation into the defense industry led to Public Citizen reporting that the military-industrial complex has a nearly 450,000% return on their lobbying investments in 2022.
Our own researchers used lobbying data to reveal coordination amongst federal and state lobbying firms who push the same special interests, using the same language, across state legislatures.
One of our data experts compared our work to building with Lego’s, where you first need to sort the pieces, arrange them, and then put them together in order for the picture to become clear. We’re lucky to be surrounded by a community committed to putting the pieces together with us, and building a transparent, accountable government for the good of all.
