If you're a programmer and want to do something politically powerful, write a tool that takes FEC bulk data and dereferences the chains of PAC-to-PAC donations used to obfuscate giving, so we can see clearly which corporations donated to which candidate.
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Each PAC and candidate committee has a unique identifier in FEC records. Candidate committees are allowed to donate to one another (within limits) so there is no guarantee that it's an acyclic graph. The world being full of smart people, it's possible this tool exists already
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Replying to @Pinboard
I've been working with FEC data for 20 years and I'm not sure the problem you're trying to solve here. The data already has this information. Can you say more?
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Replying to @derekwillis
My own interest is tracing dollars given by a specific corporate PAC to the candidate pockets they end up in. Being able to say that Google PAC funds Steve King (via Eye of the Tiger PAC) is useful to me, but I had to follow the chain by hand
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Replying to @Pinboard
So I'm not sure how you could specifically say that the $ Google gave to Scalise's PAC went to King. The data doesn't give you that assurance, just the behavior.
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Replying to @derekwillis
Sorry, are you talking now about donations from candidate committees to one another?
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Replying to @Pinboard
I'm saying that there's no way to prove that the Google $ to Eye of the Tiger (which is Scalise's PAC) is the same money that went to King.
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Ah, I didn't realize that Eye of the Tiger was connected to Scalise. Thank you for clarifying. I understand that you're saying one can't demonstrate that a specific donation was passed through to any candidate. However, the pattern of support is what I am trying to higlight.
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