Common Sense – Campaign Finance Reform
If you want to know why we need campaign finance reform, visit http://opensecrets.org and http://fec.gov and look up your representative and senators. While you’re at it, check out the “leaders” in the house and senate.
On the upper right side of Opensecrets.org is a search box. Enter the name of the person you want to investigate and click the “Search OpenSecrets” button. You can see contributions by: industry, Political Action Committees (PACS), Donors, Geography. You can also see what and who they spend these contribution funds on. Be sure to check out the “heavy hitters”. For example, you can see that AIG contributions totaled $9,745,132 split 50% to the Democrats and 49% to the Republicans.
FEC.gov is the site of the Federal Election Commission. This is where candidates and PACS reports their contributions and expenditures. This is the base data for sites like OpenSecrets.org. Here you can find the nitty gritty details and informative summaries.
The next time you wonder why some representatives voted the way they did, or claim that their constituents don’t know what’s best for them, “follow the money trail” and you’ll probably find your answer.
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