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Fec graph connect_2012
- 1. Analyzing Political Data and Campaign Contributions Using Neo4J Dave Fauth @davefauth dsfauth@gmail.com 1
- 2. About Me My Blog: http://www.intelliwareness.org Find me on Twitter: @davefauth Email me: dsfauth@gmail.com GitHub: http://github.com/davidfauth 2
- 3. Agenda • FEC Individual Contribution Data • SuperPac Data • Bill Sponsorship • Visualization • Q&A 3
- 4. Thank you • Marko Rodriguez - Gremlin movie recommender • Max De Marzi – Visualization and other cool ideas • Michael Hunger – Batch Importer 4
- 5. 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 5
- 6. FEC Data • Detailed files about Candidates, Committees and Individual Contributions – http://www.fec.gov/finance/disclosure/ftpdet.shtml • 10 years of data – Updated every Sunday 6
- 7. 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. 7
- 8. Financial Data Example Michelle Bachman Contributor Contribution contribAmt: 300 Give contribDate: 20120604 Committee s Receives Suppo Troy Smith rts Gi Candidate ve s ive Bachman for Congress s e R ec contribAmt: 200 contribDate: 20120501 contribAmt: 830 David Schweikert contribDate: 20110506 ts Gives por Rece ives Sup Giv es es eiv DAVID SCHWEIKERT FOR CONGRESS Craig Stull Rec contribAmt: 400 contribDate: 20110815 8
- 9. Data Model Expenditures Committee SUPPORTS Candidate FUNDS superPac Contributions Contribution GIVES Individual 9
- 10. More Details on the Data Model Committee Candidate committeeID candidateID committeeName candidateName SUPPORTS committeeTreasurer candidateParty committeeCity candidateElectionYear committeeState candidateOfficeState committeeZip candidateOffice FUNDS Contribution Donor indivName commID indivCity contribDate GIVES indivState contribAmt indivZip contribType idivEmp indivOccupation 10
- 12. SuperPac Expenditures • Data Obtained from Sunlightfoundation.com • Expenditures and Contributions during the 2012 election cycle 12
- 13. More Details on the Data Model Expenditures commID Committee contribDate SPENDS_MONEY contribAmt contribType committeeID committeeName committeeTreasurer committeeCity committeeState committeeZip SUPERPAC_GIVES superPac Contributions commID donorName donorCity donorState donorZip donorAmt donorDate 13
- 15. 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 15
- 16. 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 16
- 17. Data Model Actions COSPONSORS ACTIVITY SPONSORS Bill Congress REFLECTS Subject of Bill 17
- 18. What the Actions Could Be Or How a Bill Becomes a Law thanks to Josh Tauberer Introduced in Floor Debate Failed in House Failed in Senate House vote At Senate vote Committee Committee By rule Report vote Floor Debate Passed House vote vote vote Passed Senate Floor Debate Passed Without changes w/Amendment vote Enrolled Bill http://razor.occams.info/pubdocs/2012-10-08_LVI_slides.pdf 18
- 20. Visualizations • Timeline – Easy way to show SuperPac contributions/expenditures over time • Force Directed Graph – Use D3JS library 20