Making Government Transparent and Accountable
The Sunlight Foundation uses cutting-edge technology and ideas to make government transparent and accountable. Underlying all of our efforts is a fundamental belief that increased transparency will improve the public's confidence in government
The Sunlight Foundation Blog
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New “RaceTracker” to Track Every Congressional Race Nationwide
This is pretty awesome: a non-partisan, fully-referenced, open-source and crowd-sourced wiki project that lists every candidate running in every U.S. Senate, House and governor’s race.The project, dubbed RaceTracker, was coordinated by the folks at the Swing State Project as they completed a nationwide survey of the candidates in each race. As we move into the 2010 congressional races, the site will use crowd-sourced participation to keep it current.
http://www.opencongress.org/wiki/RaceTracker
Project lead Conor Kenny of the Sunlight Foundation writes
You can now check on the status of each of the seven candidates considering a run for the seat of Illinois’ Sen. Roland Burris (D) or the eight who are eyeing Rep. Betsy Markey (D-Colo.). We’ll even tell you who’s a confirmed as a candidate versus who’s merely considering or rumored to be a candidate, how much money they’ve raised, the district boundaries and the district-specific electoral trends in the last three presidential elections.
In true wikified fashion, one of the most important aspects of RaceTracker is that all the data is freely available via an open API for use in other web apps or visualizations. I’m looking forward to seeing what others will come up with as the possibilities abound. (Continue reading…)
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How Not to Use a Telephone
Zach Roth, being slightly more charitable than I would be, over at TPM Muckraker does the best job of giving some context to this conversation of the absurd.
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Ethics Committee to “Investigate” Burris
So, the Senate Ethics Committee is going to investigate Sen. Roland Burris for his admission that he sought to raise money for the defrocked former Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich as he was seeking appointment to the state’s open Senate seat. The Ethics Committee is, as most know, a black hole where investigations go to die. Anyone remember that Ethics investigation into Sen. Ted Stevens? That’s right, it never happened.
The whole ethics process in Congress is a joke. Outside observers consistently declare that the process is worthless and appears dead, while lawmakers continue to insist that the ethics process is alive and well. It’s a running gag in Washington. In fact, it’s exactly like this:
While the Ethics Committee continues “pining for the fjords,” I’ll be waiting for the state’s attorney investigation into Burris’ alleged perjury and not the investigation of the late Ethics Committee.
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Burris Steps In It
Sen. Roland Burris revealed that, in contradiction to his sworn affidavit, he sought to raise money for Gov. Rod Blagojevich while seeking appointment to the open Illinois Senate seat. Illinois Republicans are calling for a perjury investigation and Illinois Democrats are also calling for his statements to be examined in the legal arena. Burris is already welcoming investigations by “any and all investigative bodies … to answer questions they have.”
According to Burris’ own, most recent, recollection, he was solicited by the Governor’s brother to raise some campaign cash to the tune of $10,000 or $15,000. Burris attempted to gather his friends and associates together to pool the money for Blagojevich. But, no one wanted to pony up money to the embattled Governor. In effect, Burris failed to deliver the contributions that could help him get the Senate seat.
For a guy with so many accomplishments already listed on his mausoleum, you’d think he could successfully trade campaign cash for a political appointment. This is probably one of the biggest corruption fails since Elliot Abrams accidentally lost $10 million during the Iran-Contra scandal.
Burris’ Senate career could be one of the shortest in history.
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And We’re Back
Happy New Year! The Sunlight blog is back after the holidays and here’s a look back at some stories we missed covering over the past week and a half:
Gov. Rod Blagojevich, man of multiple criminal conspiracies and multiple toupees, appointed former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to fill the open Senate seat vacated by President-Elect Barack Obama that Blagojevich was wont to sell to the highest bidder. The press conference announcing the pick was one of the best media spectacles of 2008 (and that’s saying a lot). The Senate has threatened to not seat Burris despite varying degrees of legal certainty regarding their power to refuse membership.
The stimulus package is in many ways turning into a bailout for the rest of us (us meaning people – ie: organizations – other than you and me). Zoos, bicycle companies, alternative energy, mayors, eroded beaches, you name it, they’re lobbying for money in the as yet unfinished stimulus package.
‘Twas the season of giving and we the followers of the Charlie Rangel saga were presented with more stories about the embattled Ways and Means Committee Chairman. The New York Times reported that Rangel pushed bailout magnate/insurer AIG for a contribution to the Charles B. Rangel School for Public Service as AIG pushed Rangel for a tax break. They both got what they were asking for. On the more mundane side, Rangel was found to use campaign funds to pay for his parking tickets.
USA Today reported what we already knew, one-third of all top staffers become lobbyists when they leave the halls of Congress.
