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Nothing like a presidential election year to focus our attention on the money -- who's getting it, where it's coming from, and what it's spent on. A Yahoo! search on "campaign finance" provided a number of promising leads across the entire Yahoo! network. We visited an in-depth and continually updated Yahoo! Full Coverage news report on the topic of Campaign Finance. We focused on the annotated links to related web sites and discovered Opensecrets.org, a "guide to the money in American elections." The site's Industry Profiles
section shows the break-down of contributions in over 100 industries and sectors, from agribusiness to telecommunications. Use the zip code lookup to find out about donations to local candidates from local corporate or ideological interests. Whether your concern or curiosity is at the national, state, or municipal level, or you just want to hone in on a single candidate, the facts are here at your fingertips. Another site, Common Cause Campaign Finance Studies Index, is an accessible archive of pamphlets and reports on funding in Election Year 2000. Record amounts of soft money were contributed in the 18 months from January 1999 to
June 30, 2000. The Securities & Investments industry topped the list of big spenders by sector with contributions approaching $25 million. Spending by special interests in the computers and electronics, telecommunications (second-place this year), and labor union (third place) sectors increased dramatically. The site includes a long list of leading "double givers," companies like AT&T, Microsoft, and AOL, who undoubtedly have good reasons for hedging their bets and pretty deep pockets to delve into. We noticed that both Phillip Morris and BP Amoco, seem to be anteing up a lot more for Republican candidates; do you suppose that's an indicator of where they expect to find support for their plans and products?
A Hoover Institution public policy report on Campaign Finance includes historical background, the current structure of financing programs, court cases, past and current reform efforts. This study distinguishes between different sources of contributions: Political Action Committees (PACs), soft money contributors, and individuals. On the Internet, or in any medium, it pays to know your sources. Often, agenda pages and disclaimers right on the web site indicate an institution's biases or partisan affiliations. Look for an "About"
page or a mission statement, or check the Yahoo! Campaign Finance category for additional web resources. And don't forget to vote on November 7!
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