New Tool Seeks To Uncover Lobbying's Role In Political Results
from the the-corruption-index? dept
Larry Lessig recently directed our attention to a new project, called Congressional Closeup, that seeks to uncover political narratives in "strange" voting patterns by our elected officials through automated means. For example, in a demo (covering a story from the last Congress), it looks at lobbying dollars and how that may have influenced a particular vote:There was some strange behavior in Congress today as several Democrats went against their own party and voted with Republicans to table the Democrat sponsored Dorgan amendment to the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 (S.3217). The official purpose of Byron Dorgan [D-ND]'s amendment (according to the Library of Congress) is To ban naked credit default swaps.Who knows how effective the tool will be, but it's nice to see more people trying to dig into the story (or stories) behind the story when it comes to voting -- especially when it comes to things like lobbying dollars. The project is being put together by a CS PhD student and it would be nice if it actually was effective at both uncovering important stories and also in making those stories known.
At first glance, it seems like many of the rogue voters were influenced by lobbies.
For instance, a group of 3 Senators Sen. Dodd [D-CT], Sen. Carper [D-DE], and Sen. Johnson [D-SD], who voted with Republicans to table the amendment, have individually received more campaign contributions than other Senators (see Table 1 below).
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Filed Under: congress, corruption, lobbying, politics
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I shudder to think what the government will do to him.
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They tried that with Opensecrets before I believe. Look at it now.
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When is the Truth Illigal?
Since when is the truth illegal?
Should they seek to quash these efforts, you KNOW America and the free world is in decline.
Yay bring on the Tyranny!
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Re: When is the Truth Illigal?
Linking to the Truth will get your domain seized without due process since linking is a tool for criminals and terrorists.
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Re: Re: When is the Truth illegal?
There is a famous historical court case where the truth was punishable by death that I recall too. Where truth was deemed a terrorist threat.
I think it was Emperor versus Jesus Christ, unfortunately the case was complicated by predominately dissenting jury that begged for the death penalty.
Anyhow, best we don't bring that up huh?
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Re: Re: Re: When is the Truth illegal?
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I wouldn't trust it.
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Be careful with correlation and causation
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Re: Be careful with correlation and causation
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Re: Re: Be careful with correlation and causation
that exactly is how politics and lobbying works.
the ideal that you would not need to bribe someone simply because they support you *now* is nice... and a bit of a pollyanna outlook... but its certainly nice...
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I would be worried..
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Either way, lobbying is a touchy situation. How do you legislate against a basic right of the constitution? I'm not sure what the best solution is, other than to only elect honest politicians, which cannot happen due to the nature of a politics.
Although, instant run off voting would help.
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- Despite what SCOTUS said, corporations are not human.
"I'm not sure what the best solution is"
- There isn't one.
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And you do realize that the SCOTUS finding that I'm guessing you are referring to was basically the difference between Michael Moore releasing a movie months before an election, and a group of individuals who incorporated themselves to release a movie months before an election?
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Real Problem
Also, there really isn't a solution to this problem as we can't dictate to these people what they do after leaving public service.
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Tool
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Re: Tool v. Reality
Sen. Carper represents Delaware, which is arguably the most " corporate "blue sky" state; he does not sit on the Committee, but you should expect a his floor votes to most often reflect Delaware's extreme lack of financial transparency (see e.g., http://www.financialsecrecyindex.com/).
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As one person noted above, Delaware is a corporate haven state, with limited taxes, oversight, and favorable liablity laws and situations. Could it be that Delaware might also have a fair number of people employed in the very industry of credit swaps? Might it be that this vote represents the will of the constituents they represent?
Only assuming that it's donations driving the votes is a flawed basic assumption.
I don't know what is more disappointing: Lessig for writing about what appears to be a flawed concept, or Techdirt for parroting it without thinking.
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Better Option
No individual holding a public office, appointed or elected (Public Official), or actively campaigning for an elected office (Candidate) shall accept any gift of money, goods, or services from any individual or group that is not currently eligible to vote in any electoral district represented by that official. The total value of all gifts of money, goods, and services provided by any group or individual eligible to vote to any one Public Official or Candidate may not exceed 10% of the median household income determined by the most recent census.
This would prevent anyone other than registered voters from making campaign contributions of any kind. Companies, foreigners, lobbyists, children, the dead, and anyone else who cannot vote for whatever reason would be unable to give money to public officials or candidates. I feel this is justified because the right to vote is really the right to determine your representation, and people who do not have that right giving money which can and does influence elections and therefore public policy is a violation of that right of the voters to determine their representation. The limit on the contribution is to ensure that people who aren't wealthy and wish to contribute will be contributing meaningful amounts compared to the super wealthy.
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