Data source explanation
What is political influence data?
Political influence data includes information about campaign contributions, political action committees, lobbying spending, outside spending, industries, donors, candidates, and organizations that try to shape public policy.
For the Wealth Reform Project, this data matters because concentrated wealth can become concentrated political influence. If a small number of people, companies, industries, or organizations can heavily influence elections or legislation, then economic reform becomes harder to evaluate democratically.
Main sources
| Source | Type of Data | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Federal Election Commission | Campaign contributions, committees, candidates, reports, and election spending. | Provides official federal campaign finance data that can show who funds campaigns and political committees. |
| OpenSecrets | Campaign finance summaries, lobbying data, donor patterns, industries, and political influence reports. | Helps make campaign finance and lobbying data easier to understand and compare across industries and political actors. |
Why it matters
Wealth reform is partly about money, but it is also about power. A household with little savings has limited economic flexibility. A major donor, corporation, or industry group may have much more ability to influence rules, taxes, regulation, subsidies, and enforcement.
This does not mean every donation or lobbying effort is corrupt. It means the structure of influence should be measurable and visible.
Useful categories
| Category | Examples | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Campaign contributions | Individual donations, PAC donations, committee donations | Shows where campaign money comes from. |
| Outside spending | Super PACs, independent expenditures, election ads | Shows political spending beyond direct candidate donations. |
| Lobbying spending | Industry lobbying, corporate lobbying, trade groups | Shows which interests are spending money to influence policy. |
| Industry influence | Finance, real estate, healthcare, energy, technology, defense | Allows comparison between sectors that may benefit from public rules. |
| Candidate and committee links | Recipients, committees, parties, leadership PACs | Helps show how money flows into the political system. |
How this source will be used
Political influence data can help the project compare economic power with political activity. For example, if an industry benefits from a tax rule, subsidy, housing policy, financial regulation, or labor rule, the project can ask whether that same industry is also heavily involved in lobbying or campaign finance.
The goal is not to accuse every participant of wrongdoing. The goal is to make influence patterns visible enough for ordinary readers to understand.
Possible first charts
- Lobbying spending by industry over time.
- Campaign contributions by economic sector.
- Outside spending in federal elections.
- Comparison of lobbying spending and policy areas.
- Top industries involved in campaign finance and lobbying.
Connection to proposals
Political influence data will be useful when evaluating reforms involving taxes, financial regulation, housing, labor rights, healthcare, campaign finance, and anti-monopoly policy.
A reform may look good on paper but face organized opposition from groups that benefit from the current system. Measuring that opposition can help explain why some reforms fail even when they have broad public support.
Current project status
FEC and OpenSecrets have been identified as important sources. The next step is to review the available data formats, decide which data can be downloaded or accessed by API, and choose a small first dataset for analysis.