About Sunlight Foundation

Explore companies, lawmakers and prominent individuals that matter to you and see how they're influencing the political system

What's New

Foreign Influence Explorer

After months of research, technical development and manual data entry, we are proud to unveil Foreign Influence Explorer—a new database housed within Influence Explorer that lets users explore how foreign entities influence policy and public opinion in the U.S.

The data comes from the Department of Justice and is collected according to the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which places stringent reporting requirements on foreign governments, political parties, businesses and other organizations that aim to influence policy here in the States.

The new database also includes a feed of proposed arms sales documents from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. This data is included because so much foreign lobbying revolves around arms sales, which creates a nexus of influence between countries that want to buy U.S. arms and U.S. manufacturers that want to sell them.

Real-Time Influence Explorer

In addition to the new foreign lobbying data, Influence Explorer still features federal campaign finance data from the Federal Election Commission in real-time. As we get closer to the 2014 mid-term elections, find who's spending the most to win a seat in Congress.

  • Influence Explored

    regularly updated news and analysis using Influence Explorer

    Outside groups spend at least $120 per Alaska voter

    As disclosed spending by third-party groups crests $650 million, it's voters in a handful of states who are bearing the brunt of the advertising barrage. In Alaska's Senate battle, where incumbent Democrat Mark Begich is running neck and neck with Republican Attorney General Dan Sullivan, we estimate that outside groups have spent $120 — or more — for each likely voter in the sparsely populated state.

    We used the Federal Election Commission's turnout data from the 2012 presidential election as an estimate of the number of voters in each Senate contest. Voter turnout in presidential elections is always higher than in midterms, so it's likely that our estimate of spending per vote is conservative.

    The Senate race in Alaska, in which the Rothenberg Political Report gives Sullivan the slight edge, has attracted money from the biggest campaign players in the country, including the Senate arms of the Democratic and Republican parties, the conservative powerhouse American Crossroads and Senate Majority PAC, which has been funneling money to the pro-Begich Put Alaska First super PAC.

    In all, that state has seen some $36 million in independent expenditures reported to the Federal Election Commission. That's a lot of outside interest ...

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