fec graph connect_2012

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Analyzing Political Data and Campaign Contributions

Using Neo4J

Dave Fauth

@davefauth

dsfauth@gmail.com

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About Me

My Blog: http://www.intelliwareness.orgFind me on Twitter: @davefauthEmail me: dsfauth@gmail.com

GitHub: http://github.com/davidfauth

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Agenda• FEC Individual Contribution Data• SuperPac Data• Bill Sponsorship• Visualization• Q&A

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Thank you• Marko Rodriguez - Gremlin movie

recommender• Max De Marzi – Visualization and

other cool ideas• Michael Hunger – Batch Importer

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FEC Data

• In 1975, Congress created the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to administer and enforce the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) – – The statute that governs the financing of federal

elections.

• The duties of the FEC, which is an independent regulatory agency, are to disclose campaign finance information

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FEC Data

• Detailed files about Candidates, Committees and Individual Contributions– http://www.fec.gov/finance/disclosure/ftpdet.shtm

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• 10 years of data– Updated every Sunday

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FEC Files

• Committees– The committee master file contains one record for each committee

registered with the Federal Election Commission.

• Candidates– The candidate master file contains one record for each candidate who

has either registered with the Federal Election Commission or appeared on a ballot list prepared by a state elections office.

• Individual Contributions– The individual contributions file contains each contribution from an

individual to a federal committee if the contribution was at least $200.

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Financial Data Example

Supports

Gives

Gives

Gives

Gives

Receives

Receives

Receives

Receives

Supports

Michelle Bachman

Bachman for Congress

Troy Smith

contribAmt: 200contribDate: 20120501

contribAmt: 300contribDate: 20120604

DAVID SCHWEIKERT FOR CONGRESS

David Schweikert

Craig Stull

contribAmt: 400contribDate: 20110815

contribAmt: 830contribDate: 20110506

Contributor

Contribution

Committee

Candidate

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SUPPORTSCommittee

Data Model

Candidate

FUNDS

GIVES

Contribution

Individual

Expenditures

superPac Contributions

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SUPPORTS

Committee

committeeIDcommitteeNamecommitteeTreasurercommitteeCitycommitteeStatecommitteeZip

Candidate

candidateIDcandidateNamecandidatePartycandidateElectionYearcandidateOfficeStatecandidateOffice

More Details on the Data Model

Contribution

commIDcontribDatecontribAmtcontribType

FUNDSDonor

indivNameindivCityindivStateindivZipidivEmpindivOccupation

GIVES

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Demo Time

commIDcontribDatecontribAmtcontribType

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SuperPac Expenditures• Data Obtained from Sunlightfoundation.com• Expenditures and Contributions during the

2012 election cycle

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Committee

committeeIDcommitteeNamecommitteeTreasurercommitteeCitycommitteeStatecommitteeZip

More Details on the Data ModelExpenditures

commIDcontribDatecontribAmtcontribType

SPENDS_MONEY

superPac Contributions

commIDdonorNamedonorCitydonorStatedonorZipdonorAmtdonorDate

SUPERPAC_GIVES

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Demo Time

commIDcontribDatecontribAmtcontribType

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Bill Sponsorship• The Data– Obtained from http://www.govtrack.us/– Members of Congress

• Data on everyone who has ever served in Congress– Bills introduced in each Congressional Session• XML File

– Sponsor, Cosponsor, Title, Date Introduced, Actions, Subjects

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Data Loading• XML Parser– Wrote Java XML Parser to parse out 6 years of data– Create files for Bill, Sponsors, CoSponsor and

Subjects• Bulk Data Importer– Use similar approach to load data using Java

importer

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SPONSORSBill

Data Model

Congress

REFLECTS

Subject of Bill

ActionsCOSPONSORS

ACTIVITY

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What the Actions Could BeOr

How a Bill Becomes a Lawthanks to Josh Tauberer

http://razor.occams.info/pubdocs/2012-10-08_LVI_slides.pdf

Introduced in House

Floor Debate

Floor Debate

Floor Debate

Failed in Senate

Failed in House

vote

vote

vote

vote

vote

vote

Passed SenateWithout changes

Passed w/Amendment

Enrolled Bill

At Senate Committee

Passed House

By ruleCommittee

Report vote

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Demo Time

commIDcontribDatecontribAmtcontribType

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Visualizations• Timeline– Easy way to show SuperPac

contributions/expenditures over time• Force Directed Graph– Use D3JS library

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Questions

commIDcontribDatecontribAmtcontribType