My frend Chris Emami at OC Political has posted about an Anaheim Campaign Database project he is launching. It is a worthy endeavor, and the information about council candidates is useful. I do have some suggestions for making it more complete.
The profiles of the candidates’ campaign finances don’t include how much of their own mony they donated to their campaigns. Brian Chuchua, for example, pumped about $60,000 (if memory serves) from his own pocket (and the pocket of a family member). Not that it did him any good, but it does belong in any pie chart or profile of his campaign finances.
Also, independent expenditures aren’t included. The post includes this illustrative pie chart about John Leos’ campaign contributions:
But the real story is the staggering $531,000 the unions — mainly the Orange County Employees Association — spent in independent expenditures on behalf of Leos.
Still, this project is a good start, and I’m sure Chris will be incorporating improvements along the way.
Thanks for the link to the post. I eventually plan to circle around and doing an IE database (if we can find some sponsors to help cover the cost of researchers).
With regard to the personal loans my gut feeling is that it is a data point that can skew things because some people loan money to use it and others loan money to inflate their fundraising totals/scare opponents and never end up spending it. If you can make a really compelling argument to include it in all future databases for Cities/School Districts/Special Districts I will strongly consider adding it.
This is really interesting. Thanks Chris, and Matt for passing it along.
Glad the outside special interest money will be added, especially how much money public employee unions are putting into local races to protect their unsustainable pensions.