Abstract

Campaign Contribution Mapping and Analysis
Track: State and Local Government
Author(s): Christina Bottego, Megan Heckert

Campaign contributions have a significant impact on the success or failure of a political candidate. Anecdotal evidence and preliminary analyses suggest that a large portion of political contributions to legislative candidates are raised from special interests that operate outside of their districts, leading to a real or perceived dichotomy wherein a legislator places the needs of financial supporters above the needs of his or her constituency. This presentation will describe studies performed by MapLight.org and Common Cause New York to determine the proportion of funds US Congressional and New York legislative candidates receive from outside of the districts they represent. It will focus on how ArcView and ModelBuilder contributed to these analyses and enabled rapid and automated map generation in support of these efforts.

Christina Bottego
Common Cause New York
155 Avenue of the Americas
4th Floor
New York , New York 10013
United States
Phone: 212-691-6421
Fax: 212-807-1809
E-mail: cbottego@commoncause.org

Megan Heckert
Avencia Incorporated
340 N. 12th St.
Suite 402
Philadelphia , Pennsylvania 19107
United States
Phone: 215-701-7712
E-mail: mheckert@avencia.com