5 ms·

Ask HN: Is There a Crunchbase for Policitians?

51 points by threesevenths 3y ago

As the title implies, is there a site that tracks associations, lobbyists, etc of politicians?

TheBill 3y ago
Not that I'm aware, but there are a ton of trade trackers: https://www.quiverquant.com/sources/senatetrading https://www.quiverquant.com/sources/senatetrading https://www.barchart.com/investing-ideas/politician-insider-trading https://www.barchart.com/investing-ideas/politician-insider-... https://www.smartinsider.com/politicians/ https://www.smartinsider.com/politicians/ https://www.capitoltrades.com/politicians https://www.capitoltrades.com/politicians
revenga99 3y ago
there is https://www.capitoltrades.com/trades https://www.capitoltrades.com/trades that tracks the trades of legislators and politician. However I don't know of anything that goes in depth of what you are proposing. I think a clean UI that shows something as basic as politicians voting records can make voters more informed. Is this information public knowledge? could it the extraction of information be automated or would it require journalism and looking through paper trails?
mianm 3y ago
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/ https://www.theyworkforyou.com/ Has a fair amount of data about current MPs including expenses claimed and voting history.
julien040 3y ago
Long time ago, I saw this project: https://github.com/everypolitician/everypolitician-data https://github.com/everypolitician/everypolitician-data I haven't used it, so I don't know about the quality of the data
rs999gti 3y ago
https://www.opensecrets.org/ https://www.opensecrets.org/
phone_book 3y ago
OpenSecrets, besides tracking contributions it has a bunch of other info like the revolving door section. https://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/ https://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/
nceqs3 3y ago
You are thinking of https://www.legistorm.com/ https://www.legistorm.com/.
rbc 3y ago
I found the profiles in ballotpedia.org to be useful in the past.
rollinDyno 3y ago
You can always request this data directly from the SEC or the FEC for the raw reports. In my experience, the regulation is does not provide enough transparency. The three main issues I can think of right now are the following: - Citizen's United. No need to elaborate. - It is incredibly hard to marry lobbying and fundraising data. The company names are not the cleanest. - Extent of enforced disclosure in the Lobbying Disclosure Act: lobbyists do not need to say which bill they are trying to influence, or which official (political or bureacratic) they are trying to influence / contact. Both acts have tiny loopholes. I don't remember the exact quantities, but if you're donating an amount smaller than X to a politician, it does not need to be reported. And if less than Y% of your time is spent attempting to influence politicians / government agents, you don't need to report this.
ZeroGravitas 3y ago
https://littlesis.org/ https://littlesis.org/ LittleSis* is a free database of who-knows-who at the heights of business and government * opposite of Big Brother We're a grassroots watchdog network connecting the dots between the world's most powerful people and organizations
- bratgpttamer 3y ago
  Their Oligrapher tool is pretty cool, even if it does act like a Six Degrees Of [Clinton|Bush] engine
jarofgreen 3y ago
There used to be this project: https://www.mysociety.org/2019/06/26/placing-everypolitician-on-hold/ https://www.mysociety.org/2019/06/26/placing-everypolitician...
threesevenths 3y ago
Thank you everyone for your answers and awesome sites to look through.
bhag2066 3y ago
You might be looking for https://www.govconnex.com https://www.govconnex.com and their competitors
zeruch 3y ago
Probably the best generically accessible option for the lay person is OpenSecrets, and then there may be state or municipal level projects for a jurisdiction you care about. You can also use the Federal Register as well, but that requires a little inside alchemy to navigate for many.
helghardt 3y ago
It would be great if it could have an archive of opinions around specific topics too. And perhaps a way to get insight into the background/motivations of donors. Like on Crunchbase you can visit the websites of funds that invested and get an idea of their goals/ambitions.

51 points by threesevenths 3y ago

As the title implies, is there a site that tracks associations, lobbyists, etc of politicians?

Not that I'm aware, but there are a ton of trade trackers: https://www.quiverquant.com/sources/senatetrading https://www.quiverquant.com/sources/senatetrading https://www.barchart.com/investing-ideas/politician-insider-trading https://www.barchart.com/investing-ideas/politician-insider-... https://www.smartinsider.com/politicians/ https://www.smartinsider.com/politicians/ https://www.capitoltrades.com/politicians https://www.capitoltrades.com/politicians

revenga99 3y ago

there is https://www.capitoltrades.com/trades https://www.capitoltrades.com/trades that tracks the trades of legislators and politician. However I don't know of anything that goes in depth of what you are proposing. I think a clean UI that shows something as basic as politicians voting records can make voters more informed. Is this information public knowledge? could it the extraction of information be automated or would it require journalism and looking through paper trails?

mianm 3y ago

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/ https://www.theyworkforyou.com/ Has a fair amount of data about current MPs including expenses claimed and voting history.

julien040 3y ago

Long time ago, I saw this project: https://github.com/everypolitician/everypolitician-data https://github.com/everypolitician/everypolitician-data I haven't used it, so I don't know about the quality of the data

rs999gti 3y ago

https://www.opensecrets.org/ https://www.opensecrets.org/

phone_book 3y ago

OpenSecrets, besides tracking contributions it has a bunch of other info like the revolving door section. https://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/ https://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/

nceqs3 3y ago

You are thinking of https://www.legistorm.com/ https://www.legistorm.com/.

rbc 3y ago

I found the profiles in ballotpedia.org to be useful in the past.

rollinDyno 3y ago

You can always request this data directly from the SEC or the FEC for the raw reports. In my experience, the regulation is does not provide enough transparency. The three main issues I can think of right now are the following: - Citizen's United. No need to elaborate. - It is incredibly hard to marry lobbying and fundraising data. The company names are not the cleanest. - Extent of enforced disclosure in the Lobbying Disclosure Act: lobbyists do not need to say which bill they are trying to influence, or which official (political or bureacratic) they are trying to influence / contact. Both acts have tiny loopholes. I don't remember the exact quantities, but if you're donating an amount smaller than X to a politician, it does not need to be reported. And if less than Y% of your time is spent attempting to influence politicians / government agents, you don't need to report this.

ZeroGravitas 3y ago

https://littlesis.org/ https://littlesis.org/ LittleSis* is a free database of who-knows-who at the heights of business and government * opposite of Big Brother We're a grassroots watchdog network connecting the dots between the world's most powerful people and organizations

bratgpttamer 3y ago
Their Oligrapher tool is pretty cool, even if it does act like a Six Degrees Of [Clinton|Bush] engine

jarofgreen 3y ago

There used to be this project: https://www.mysociety.org/2019/06/26/placing-everypolitician-on-hold/ https://www.mysociety.org/2019/06/26/placing-everypolitician...

threesevenths 3y ago

Thank you everyone for your answers and awesome sites to look through.

bhag2066 3y ago

You might be looking for https://www.govconnex.com https://www.govconnex.com and their competitors

zeruch 3y ago

Probably the best generically accessible option for the lay person is OpenSecrets, and then there may be state or municipal level projects for a jurisdiction you care about. You can also use the Federal Register as well, but that requires a little inside alchemy to navigate for many.

helghardt 3y ago

It would be great if it could have an archive of opinions around specific topics too. And perhaps a way to get insight into the background/motivations of donors. Like on Crunchbase you can visit the websites of funds that invested and get an idea of their goals/ambitions.