❮ Projects page Sunlight Foundation

Spatial Analysis Project:

Sunlight Labs possesses a large amount of geographic data related to influences on our political system, but to date has not had the opportunity to perform exploratory analyses on it. Working under the supervision of Senior Fellow Lee Drutman and alongside Sunlight’s team of researchers, designers and technologists, the student will investigate a variety of GIS analyses from a political science background. In cases where the results are compelling, they will be adapted into visualizations, blog posts, research projects or new features for Sunlight’s sites, apps and APIs.

Data available:

Sunlight has extensive campaign finance records, including tens of millions of geocodable campaign finance transactions. We also possess some expertise in identifying relevant shapefiles and have a postGIS backend available (we are lacking in experience in GIS experience in tools like ArcGIS/qGIS etc). We also have a newly-released project, politicaladsleuth.com, which combined with FCC records of broadcast areas, promises to power previously-unexplored analyses of television advertising’s efficacy.

Maps and Reports that will be created:

• Mapping the geography of campaign contributions over time, including the potential neighborhood effects. How much are your contribution patterns impacted by your neighbors’?
• Mapping the economic interests of members of Congress. Based on economic census and other data, which industries have which jobs in which districts? Does this impact members’ legislative behaviors?
• Measuring out of district flows (basically extending this phenomenon: http://www.psmag.com/politics/the-rise-of-the-political-donor-class-4305/)

The output of these analyses may take the form of infographics, blog posts, research projects or new features for Sunlight’s apps, sites and APIs.

How the maps and reports will be used:

Sunlight regularly publishes original analyses and tools through a variety of media, helping to bring attention to the effect of money and other forms of influence on our political system. Our dedicated communications team helps to ensure that these analyses are widely read and redistributed. The work produced under this partnership will be seen and potentially covered by the world’s biggest media brands.