Annual Report 2013
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The National Institute on Money in State Politics Constructing a New Paradigm 2013 Annual Report www.FollowTheMoney.org NIMSP_13ReportFNL.indd 1 9/6/13 7:53:33 AM Mission The National Institute on Money in State Politics is the only nonpartisan, nonprofit organization revealing the influence of campaign money on state-level elections and public policy in all 50 states. Our comprehensive and verifiable campaign- finance database and relevant issue analyses are available for free through our website FollowTheMoney.org. We encourage transparency and promote independent investigation of state-level campaign contributions by journalists, academic researchers, public-interest groups, government agencies, policymakers, students and the public at large. Constructing a New Paradigm The Institute dove into its engineering trenches this past year, completely rethinking our underlying data architecture that archives 30 million records documenting $28 billion reported in political campaign money. We wanted more speed, more cross-analyses, more options. Our goal was to make the quality of the data impossibly better. In short, we want you to be able to ask anything and find answers, fast. And so, the Institute spent this past year deep in the twists and turns of source codes, to knit and entwine our data pathways in new ways. We closed our eyes and imagined an entirely fresh way of perceiving. We mined the data, reimagined the substructure, sketched possibilities, and wore out markers and erasers on whiteboards. We gave the beta version to academics, journalists, and other major users with instructions to find weaknesses, to probe and try to unravel it, then we braided it into a stronger net, a solid labyrinth of unimpeachable integrity. Go ahead, try it. We promise you will be amazed: www.FollowTheMoney.org 1 NIMSP_13ReportFNL.indd 2 9/6/13 7:53:35 AM The Infrastructure of Democracy Building and maintaining a healthy democracy is hard work. The National Institute on Money in Baseline building blocks from all 50 states Much work remains to be done for the State Politics gave the nation its first already collected by the Institute include: infrastructure of democracy to show citizens comprehensive look at who was donating a clear roadway to greater accountability of Donors to all state-level legislative, to candidates running for state office in lawmakers and governments. More heavy gubernatorial, attorney general, and all 50 states in the 2000 elections, who other candidates to constitutional lifts need to be added to the ongoing data was giving to lawmakers across state offices collection: lines, and early sketches of how major Donors to Democratic and Republican Compile lobbyist expenditure data in industries and groups were strategically state party and caucus committees a majority of states donating to politicians in multiple states Compile independent expenditure to move specific policy agendas. We saw Donors to ballot measure committees in the states that allow popular reports from additional states energy deregulation policy initiatives initiatives that gave us a fundamental restructuring Build a process for compiling issue- of energy markets in 24 states, and the Registered lobbyists in all 50 states, advocacy spending, such as TV and Enron scandal. Three-strikes and correlated to their clients and their radio buys and mass-mailers, for mandatory-minimum tough-on-crime donations to candidates representative districts in each state measures got politicians elected across Donors correlated to legislative Expand best practices in reporting and the country, spurred the expansion of committee members disclosure of all election and policy- prison privatization, and gave a handful of debate-related information Independent spending reports from companies tidy profits, at taxpayer expense. committees in 30 states in 2012 Correlate introduced legislation to Thirteen years later, the Institute continues Pilot projects include compiling state sponsors with key votes to create and maintain the nation’s only PAC donors in 20 states, lobbyist Correlate subsidy and contract lists 50-state, state-level donor database, expenditures in a dozen more, and local with campaign donor lists and continues to do the heavy lifting level data in Los Angeles and Orange Engage citizens to participate in the for good government and transparency County, and New York City democratic processes advocates. It is quickly building additional, necessary infrastructure to provide essential information about who supports major candidates and policy initiatives and The value of all this work is strengthening our democracy how those donations may affect policy through an engaged citizenry who hold lawmakers accountable over a long period outcomes that ultimately impact taxpayers. of time. Like the interstate highway system that spans and connects our country, the It is leveraging the many eyes of social Institute’s free-flowing, multi-layered, and evolving information highway can lead to media—with a mountain of high-quality more efficient government, greater accountability of elected leaders, and a more robust data at www.FollowTheMoney.org—to make debate about issues that affect our everyday lives. it more and more difficult for politicians to dole out taxpayer-funded favors to high- Our 21st century democracy looks very different from the past, but the corrosive effects dollar donors. of power and money are unrelenting. It will take hard work to maintain a healthy, vibrant democracy. We’ll hold up our end of the load. Engaged, active citizens now have an unprecedented ability to match donors and their agendas with politicians eager to get elected. Those citizens can change the course of our nation. —Edwin Bender, Executive Director 2 NIMSP_13ReportFNL.indd 3 9/6/13 7:53:37 AM FollowTheMoney is a MARS Best Free Reference Web Sites of 2012 winner! —Erica Danowitz, Chair, Best Free Web Sites Committee, Emerging Technologies, American Library Association Window on the Year This was a year like no other. We broke all our own records to compile electronic data from the state disclosure agencies as near to “real time” as possible, providing reporters and activists the best data for analyzing 2012 elections and issues. As of Nov. 5, 2012, we had compiled an average of 90 percent of all reports due across the states. In the same time frame, we responded to an urgent request to compile new state PAC data in the 24 states that provided meaningful data with reasonable access. FollowTheMoney.org provided a clear window into the $2.78 billion reported by candidates and political party committees in the 50 states that conducted regular or special elections for state office in 2012. That eye-popping total includes: million raised by gubernatorial Plus, we posted: $241.8 candidates & officeholders million given to political $342.5 party committees $122.4 million for other statewide offices $174.4 million ..........Democrat $982.5 million for legislative seats $168.1 million ..........Republican Republican ..............$530,462,395 Additionally, we documented: Democrat ................$444,947,121 million raise by 371 ballot measure Independent and Third Party ...$7,002,072 $934.2 committees in 39 states Nonpartisan ................ $4,169,239 As is typical, California led the pack, with 77 groups that raised $455.8 million around 13 measures. million raised by appellate and $49.8 high court candidates 3 NIMSP_13ReportFNL.indd 4 9/6/13 7:53:44 AM 2012 Bits & Pieces The June 2012 Wisconsin recall election raised the most money of any gubernatorial race, by far. Republican incumbent Scott Walker and Democratic challenger Tom Barrett combined to raise $44.2 million in contributions: $37.6 million for Walker and $6.6 million for Barrett. Financially, the most evenly matched gubernatorial candidates in 2012 ran in New Hampshire, where Democrat Maggie Hassan raised $1.88 million and Republican Ovide Lamontagne raised $1.87 million. The resulting difference was the equivalent of only three-tenths of a percent of the combined total. The race for two high court seats in West Virginia generated $3.7 million in contributions. We recorded more than $55 million raised by about 1,200 lower court candidates. Really, Really Smart In the ten states for which the Institute has Highlights contributions data for all three levels of courts, The Institute’s new, unique entity resolution high court candidates averaged $323,180, system is our own artificial intelligence, created by appellate court candidates averaged $82,548, our staff computer whizzes to find and resolve the lower court candidates averaged $44,605. chronic issue of donors listing multiple variations of the same name. This customized software Two-thirds of the legislative races were quickly resolves the obvious ones, but sends the contested in the general election: 3,752 of sticky ones to our researchers who provide the nearly 5,700 races. full-on brainwork to resolve them. For instance, we found an astonishing 2,337 ways to report AT&T Legislative incumbents enjoyed an 89 and its state affiliates; 1,406 ways to list Verizon; percent success rate: 4,185 of the 4,707 1,206 ways to say Hospital Corp of America; 878 who sought reelection to the same versions of International Brotherhood of Electrical office won. Workers. The list goes on—but thanks to the entity resolution system, the speed of our standardizing work has increased exponentially. Data staff took on the unenviable task of testing new elements of our re-engineered data architecture while it was being developed. The big payoff came when we uploaded more records in three months than had been previously possible to upload in four years! www.FollowTheMoney.org 4 NIMSP_13ReportFNL.indd 5 9/6/13 7:53:45 AM Highlights Nailing the Facts Judicial Elections Twelve years of 50-state contribution Judicial candidates raised an unprecedented records (16,000+ candidates per election), Raising Standards by amount of money during the 2011 and six years of 50-state lobbying interests 2012 elections: 3,291 candidates topped Grading the States (100,000+ entities annually), and six years $110 million.