Politics and News Research:
*All WWW sites listed are free
Campaign Financing
--Federalhttp://www.fec.gov
toll-free number: 1-800-424-9530
explanatory brochures: http://www.fec.gov/pages/citn1.htm
http://www.tray.com/fecinfo - also takes FEC data & makes it much easier to use. enormous amount of campaign finance data & publications all in one place.
http://www.crp.org or
http://www.opensecrets.org
CRP Books include: Open Secrets: the dollar power of PACs in Congress
(latest edition was published by CQ), Follow the Money Handbook.
Titles include: Almanac of Federal Pacs & Open Secrets. Related works are directories of lobbyists: American Lobbyist Directory, Washington Lobbyists, etc.
PAC financial information is also available at the 3 websites above.
How to link incumbent’s campaign contributions with his/her voting record
Vote databases that allow searching by subject-
Highlights "key votes" & allows searching by subjects & Members back to 1996.
Caveats: Searches just short title & description of bill. Subject categories are very broad, such as "appropriations" & "health." Will probably miss items buried in a big omnibus bill.
Congressional ratings done by various interest groups—Usually most recent ones available on group’s WWW page (examples are: ACLU, American Federation of Teachers, National Breast Cancer Coalition, National Taxpayers Union)
Free WWW sites has Congressional ratings from over 40 groups; allows to you to compile all the ratings for one incumbent.
Campaign Financing
--Statepublished every two years by the FEC. Purchase from GPO or through FEC WWW site.
Some of these WWW sites have state candidate financial forms, "how to run for office" brochures, financial reporting software. Most do not have actual candidate financial data. (California is an exception: http://cal-access.ss.ca.gov)
Contact information for state election offices also found in directories such as the State Yellow Book & the Council of State Government’s annual directory of Administrative Officials.
Campaign Finance Reform
(organizations listed below are some of the "major players" in
the debate over federal campaign finance reform)
Nonpartisan organization; their "publications"WWW page at
http://www.opensecrets.org/pubs/index.htm has enormous amount of background information, including the Do-it-Yourself Congressional Investigations Kit & excerpts from Follow the Money Handbook.features full text of Campaign Finance Reform: a sourcebook.
ACLU opposes "McCain-Feingold" and "Shays-Meehan" bills on First Amendment Grounds; you can find more materials on campaign finance reform by running a search on the main ACLU page.
Favors campaign finance regulation & defends it again First Amendment arguments.
A leading advocate of campaign finance reform.
Supports public financing of elections and spending limitations; active in promoting voter initiatives and state legislation.
Supports campaign finance reform
Examples of individual "advocacy groups" that have taken stands on campaign finance reform:
--Christian Coalition of America http://www.cc.org/issues/campaign-finance.html
Argues that campaign finance reform would unduly curb its legitimate political activities.
--League of Women Voters - http://www.lwv.org/where/promoting/cfr.html
Supports campaign finance reform.
--National Right-to-Life Committee - http://www.nrlc.org/Federal/Free_Speech/index.html
Opposes "McCain-Feingold and Shays-Meehan bills on First Amendment grounds.
--National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Inc. - http://www.nrtw.org/d/political_spending.html
Opposes role of organized labor in political campaigns.
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