Expose Any Politician’s Fundraising Sources with This Ingenious Tool by Jason O. Gilbert.
From the post:
Whenever you’re reading a news story and you see a U.S. representative or senator supporting a bill or a cause, you might wonder just how much a specific industry or lobbying group has paid to influence his thinking.
Now, with a new browser extension called Greenhouse, you can find out instantly. Once you’ve installed Greenhouse (available for Google Chrome, Firefox, or Safari), every politician’s name will become highlighted, on any article you’re reading; hovering your mouse over the name will launch a pop-up box that shows you exactly which industries and lobbies contributed the most cash to that politician’s campaign fund.
The tool highlights contributions to both members of Congress and U.S. senators…
…
You can also click through to see a more detailed breakdown, as well as which, if any, campaign-finance reform bills the politician backs. A small box to the right of the politician’s name also shows the percentage of her contributions that came from small donors (individuals giving $200 or less.)
Nicholas Rubin, creator of Greenhouse comments on the Greenhouse homepage:
Exactly one hundred years ago, in Harper’s Weekly, Louis Brandeis made the frequently quoted statement that “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” Brandeis’s preceding sentence in the article may be less well known, but it is equally important: “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases.” I created Greenhouse to shine light on a social and industrial disease of today: the undue influence of money in our Congress. This influence is everywhere, even if it is hidden. I aim to expose and publicize that disease through technology that puts important data where it is most useful, on websites where people read about the actions, or inaction, of members of Congress every day.
Does the following sound familiar?
…its adoption did not quell the cries for reform. Eliminating corporate influence was only one of the ideas being advanced at this time to clean up political finance. Reducing the influence of wealthy individuals was also a concern, and some reformers pushed for limits on individual donations. Still others advocated even bolder ideas.
Care to guess the year being spoken of in that quote?
1907*.
Campaign finance reform and a belief in disclosure of contributions as a “cure” has a long history in the United States. The first “disclosure” act was pass in 1910. The Federal Corrupt Practices Act (aka Publicity Act) entry at Wikipedia.
That’s been what? One hundred and four (104) years ago?
My assumption is that if money was seen as corrupting politics more than a century ago and is still seen that way today, the measures taken to reduce the corruption of politics by money until now, have been largely ineffectual.
Nicholas’ browser plugin is going to be useful, but not for the reasons he gives.
First, the plugin is useful for identifying members of the House or Senate for contributions. That is to join with others in buying legislators leaning in a direction I like. You do know that an “honest” politician is one that once bought, stays bought. Yes?
Secondly and perhaps more importantly, a general form of the plugin would make a useful way to deliver links to curated (topic mapped) material on news or other items on a webpage. The average user sees underlined text, just another link. On pop-up or following it, they obtain highly curated information about a subject.
* Campaign Finance Reform: A Sourcebook edited by Anthony Corrado, et al., Brookings Institute, 1997, page 28.
You may also find Campaign-Finance Reform: History and Timeline: A look at early campaign finance legislation and efforts to regulate fund raising for political campaigns by Beth Rowen a useful overview of “reform” in this area.
I first saw this in a tweet by Gregory Piatetsky.