About MAPLight.org | MAPLight.org - Money and Politics

About MAPLight.org | MAPLight.org - Money and Politics
About MAPLight.org
MAPLight.org, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization, provides citizens and journalists the transparency tools to shine a light on the influence of money on politics.

Elected officials collect large sums of money to run their campaigns, and they often pay back campaign contributors with special access and favorable laws.

This common practice is contrary to the public interest, yet legal. MAPLight.org makes money/vote connections transparent, to help citizens hold their legislators accountable. MAPLight.org is nonprofit and nonpartisan.

We currently track money and influence in the U.S. Congress and the California legislature, with more states to come.

The Database

MAPLight.org combines three data sets:

Legislators' voting records on bills
Supporting and opposing interests for each bill
Campaign contribution data from the Center for Responsive Politics and the National Institute on Money in State Politics
Combining this data reveals connections between money and influence that could never before be easily seen. This video shows how it works.

Awards

Library Journal - Best Reference 2008
James Madison Freedom of Information Award, 2009
Knight-Batten Award for Innovations in Journalism, 2008 (award presentation video)
Webby Awards nominee, best Politics website, 2008
About our data



Read the details about our data sources and methodology. Data refers to direct contributions to the campaign committees of elected legislators. For example, contribution totals exclude contributions to party committees such as the RNC or the DNC and exclude contributions made to individuals that did not win their election.
For U.S. Congress, contributions data provided by the Center for Responsive Politics (OpenSecrets.org) and legislative data provided by GovTrack.us.
California contributions data provided by the National Institute on Money in State Politics (FollowTheMoney.org).
Wisconsin contributions data provided by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (wisdc.org).