Mashup Web Site Tracks Money Trail of Politicians

MAPLight.org is developing a mashup that shows a correlation between political campaign contributions and the way lawmakers vote.

During the Watergate scandal that eventually toppled President Richard Nixon, confidential source "Deep Throat" advised two enterprising Washington Post reporters to "follow the money" to uncover the scandal's ringleaders.

Now MAPLight.org, a small, not-for-profit company, is developing a database and application mashup that will allow the public to follow another money trail—the connection between campaign contributions and the way lawmakers vote.

The mashup brings together two usually disparate sources of information—donor money and vote data—in an interactive map. The maps illustrate the link between the amount of money elected officials receive from donors, the way that those elected officials vote on a given issue, and what position the donor—such as a political action committee—was taking on an issue when it contributed to the officials' campaigns.

Read the full article at eWEEK.