Follow the Money in State Politics Via Database

Since the Supreme Court, in its January 2010 Citizens United decision, opened the floodgates for corporate spending in U.S. politics, the job of investigative journalism has never been more crucial. A major database on state political money can help environmental reporters find and build stories on how interest-group money affects state environmental decisions.

The National Institute on Money in State Politics offers a searchable online database, actually a set of databases, focused primarily on the role of money in state electoral and legislative politics. The site, aptly named followthemoney.org, is free for public use, but requires registration to use.

It works at many levels — offering, for example, state-by-state overviews that allow you to see how your state compares to others on many criteria. Which states' politicians got the most from Bank of America? They are ranked in an easy list.

Or you can go straight to your local district in your state legislature — and see which imcumbents or candidates are getting the most money.

You can track activity by lobbyists (and their clients), too — and ballot measures. You can follow the money by industry as well. And the database has a "names in the news" feature that allows you to track donors of special interest (e.g. Goldman Sachs). That is barely the beginning. You can do your own sleuthing with advanced search tools. Institute staff are constantly preparing special reports that dig deeper into newsworthy topics.

Check it out online here.

If you are interested in some boot camp training in use of the database, it will be offered in a concurrent computer lab session at SEJ's annual meeting in Missoula, MT, Friday, Oct. 15, 2010, at 11 am.