Developing an Interactive Visualization of Campaign Finance Data for the U.S. House of Representatives

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This main goal of this project was to develop an interactive web map showing the geographic distribution of campaign contributions and independent expenditures made for members of the U.S. House of Representatives. It is expensive to get elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and in the past several decades the increase in spending has been very steep. In 2012, candidates spent an average of nearly $1.2 million (Ornstein, et al 2013). However, that included only direct candidate or party expenditures and did not include money spent by outside (i.e., “independent”) groups. Lessig (2011) argued that the way campaigns are presently funded, and the dependence members of Congress have on a relatively small number of donors, is a form of corruption in our political system. Campaign finance data are most commonly displayed in tables and graphs, while a web-based map is more accessible and engaging for the general public. There are numerous other campaign-related visualizations available on the internet, but many have not been updated from earlier election cycles, or may not include all sources of spending.

The web map created in this project enables a user to select a candidate and view contributions summed by zip code using graduated symbols. A user can also search for groups that made independent expenditures and view the congressional districts where money was spent. The data for the map is stored in a PostGIS database and is published using GeoServer. The JavaScript code for the map makes extensive use of jQuery for user interaction with the data, and Leaflet for display of the data.

Lessig, Lawrence. 2011. Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress--and a Plan to Stop It. 1 edition. New York: Twelve.

Ornstein, Norman J., Thomas E. Mann, Michael J. Malbin, and Andrew Rugg. 2014. “Vital Statistics on Congress.” The Brookings Institution. Accessed April 19, 2014. http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2013/07/vital-statistics-congress-mann-ornstein