MapLight Launches New U.S. Money & Politics Data Set

[Dan Newman]

Free, Public MapLight Money and Politics Data Set Launches Today,
Includes All Federal Campaign Contributions

Hosted on Google Fusion Tables for Easy Searching and Bulk Download
Accessible by API

Oct. 2, 2012—MapLight, a nonpartisan research organization that
reveals money's influence on politics, announces the launch of the
MapLight Money and Politics Data Set, an easy-to-access, downloadable
database of MapLight-enhanced Federal Elections Commission (FEC)
campaign finance data for free public use. The data set includes all
federal contributions, independent expenditures (including super
PACs), and candidate and committee totals and will update regularly
with the most current data from the FEC.

"MapLight is excited to offer this critical civic data in a way that
is more timely and accessible than ever before, said Daniel G. Newman,
MapLights co-founder and president. "It will be wonderful to see what
the web community builds with this continually-updated free public
data, using the latest tools from Google Fusion Tables."

Citizens, journalists, and programmers can now view, search, sort,
filter, and visualize (with charts, line graphs, bar graphs, scatter
plots, and timelines) federal campaign contributions using Google
Fusion Tables. Data can also be merged with outside databases, and
visualizations can be easily embedded into blogs, media sites, and
more.

The MapLight Money and Politics Data Set can also be downloaded or
accessed via API by citizens and journalists for free non-commercial
use in websites, widgets, and apps. The data set includes continually
updated information on all current candidates for the House, Senate,
and U.S. Presidentincluding how much each has raised and spentmaking
it easy for election-related websites to integrate this newsworthy
information.

Read more: http://maplight.org/maplight-launches-fec-money-and-politics-data-set

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Daniel Newman
President & Co-Founder
MapLight