Ask HN: Is There a Crunchbase for Policitians?

#1

Post by threesevenths » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 5:03 PM UTC

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

Re: Ask HN: Is There a Crunchbase for Policitians?

#2

Post by TheBill » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 5:45 PM UTC

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

Re: Ask HN: Is There a Crunchbase for Policitians?

#3

Post by revenga99 » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 5:48 PM UTC

there is 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?

Re: Ask HN: Is There a Crunchbase for Policitians?

#4

Post by mianm » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 5:55 PM UTC

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/

Has a fair amount of data about current MPs including expenses claimed and voting history.

Re: Ask HN: Is There a Crunchbase for Policitians?

#5

Post by julien040 » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 5:56 PM UTC

Long time ago, I saw this project: https://github.com/everypolitician/everypolitician-data

I haven't used it, so I don't know about the quality of the data

Re: Ask HN: Is There a Crunchbase for Policitians?

#6

Post by rs999gti » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 6:00 PM UTC

https://www.opensecrets.org/

Re: Ask HN: Is There a Crunchbase for Policitians?

#7

Post by phone_book » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 6:04 PM UTC

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

Re: Ask HN: Is There a Crunchbase for Policitians?

#8

Post by nceqs3 » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 6:22 PM UTC

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

Re: Ask HN: Is There a Crunchbase for Policitians?

#9

Post by rbc » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 6:28 PM UTC

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

Re: Ask HN: Is There a Crunchbase for Policitians?

#10

Post by rollinDyno » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 6:31 PM UTC

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.