We have a problem in politics today: money. It doesn't have a voice. Hundreds of millions of it is poured into individual races, but you never hear politicians expressing what is important to money. Instead, all you hear is talk of jobs and well-being, as if that was important. No airtime is being spent on the important issues.
In this project, built for the Hack for Democracy San Francisco weekend hackaton, we give voice to the neglected money in politics. What if candidates could speak up for their contributions' priorities? We look up public records on candidates' campaign contributions and use them to helpfully auto-generate a short biography expressing the candidate's true voice, as defined by the political quid pro debt taken on by his or her various contributions.
Pick an example race above to get started.
Data provided by the National Institute on Money in State Politics at followthemoney.org and subject to their API conditions.
To help money find it's true voice in politics, check out the various groups that made this hackathon possible:
- Team Democracy: a small group of folks in the San Francisco Bay area who have been working together for nearly a year to explore how design, technology, and marketing solutions could support the movement to restore our representative democracy.
- The New Hampshire Rebellion: asking candidates just one question, the First Question.
- The California Clean Money Campaign: sponsoring SB 52, the California DISCLOSE Act, to disclose in a clear and no-nonsense way who really pays for political ads. Read more at yesfairelections.org.