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About MapLight

Elected officials collect large sums of money to run their election campaigns, and they often pay back campaign contributors with special access and favorable laws. This common practice is contrary to the public interest, yet legal.

MapLight is a nonpartisan research organization that reveals money’s influence on politics in the U.S. Congress and in the California and Wisconsin Legislatures. We provide journalists and citizens with transparency tools that connect data on campaign contributions, politicians, legislative votes, industries, companies, and more to show patterns of influence never before possible to see. These tools allow users to gain unique insights into how campaign contributions affect policy so they can draw their own conclusions about how money influences our political system.

View this video to see how it works.

Quotes

"Once you’ve experienced this, it’s hard to be satisfied with the old, disconnected data. It’s like getting a first taste of salt."
Evan Hansen, Editor-in-Chief, Wired.com

"Nobody has ever revealed the relationship between money given and votes cast to quite such a startling effect."
David Pogue, New York Times

"Every taxpayer should take a hard look at this site. Never before have citizens been able to so easily track the influences on their elected officials.”
Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism

“This is the most extraordinary use of technology I believe I have seen when it comes to politics."
Dylan Ratigan, MSNBC

    Awards

    MapLight is a member of the Investigative News Network.

    2012 Highlights