N2Y2 Con: MAPLight.org: A Light on Money and Politics Intro Presentation

MAPLight.org is a Featured Project at the NetSquared 2nd Conference.

Project Summary

After each election, does your Congressperson vote your way?

Do they take money from tobacco companies? Oil companies? Pharmaceutical firms?

Do they vote to lower your prescription and gas prices? Or do they vote with big-money special interests?

MAPLight.org provides the information you need to hold your legislators accountable.

MAPLight.org is a groundbreaking public database. We illuminate the connection between campaign donations and legislative votes in unprecedented ways.

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. We bring together all contributions given to legislators with each legislator's votes on every bill. We publish this key civic information on an attractive, easy-to-use free website, www.maplight.org.

MAPLight.org is designed for bloggers, issue-oriented advocacy groups, journalists, and citizens leaders. We provide timely, specific information about money and votes, in the California legislature and, starting in May, U.S. Congress. Our efforts show how big-money campaign contributions affect issues that people care about, promoting transparency, accountability, and reform. We are nonprofit and nonpartisan.

��a preview of the next generation of money-and-politics reporting.�
--The Sunlight Foundation

With NetSquared funds, we will create customized �widgets� showing campaign contributions and votes in U.S. Congress, updated in real-time. Any blogger, nonprofit group, or citizen can create a widget for free about whatever Federal issue they are interested in.

For a brief overview of MAPLight.org, see our 6-minute Video Tour.