As you know, the citywide elections are tomorrow. I believe it is important to follow the money; where it comes from and where it goes to. Therefore, I took the 30-Day and 8-Day Campaign Contributions Reports and plugged them into my database. From there I analyzed the money flows. Rather then bore you with wordy details of the campaign funding for the May 2015 election, I thought I would share the details with you via an infographic. You can download a PDF version of the infographic using the link at the end of this post.
The green boxes are the contributions by select zip codes to all of the candidates. The red boxes are the top ten contributors. Each contributor is located in their appropriate zip code along with the amount. Next to each of the contributors I placed the candidates that benefited from their contributions.
I decided to skip Dan Longoria’s billboard contribution to Cortney Niland since it was a unique contribution as a result of Longoria dropping out of the race. I also did not include the Texas Association of Realtors although they ranked second in the top ten contributors tally. I was interested in the individuals.
The pie chart gives you an indication of the total contributions in this campaign cycle in proportion to all of the candidates. Manuel Hinojosa is not included because he reported accepting less than $200 in campaign contributions which made his slice unreadable.
Please feel free to share the infographic with your friends.
May 2015 El Paso Campaign Finance Infographic to download the PDF version.
I am considering making my database, which includes campaign contributions since 2000, available online for you to conduct your own searches by contributor or candidate. However, I am not sure if any of you would use it. If you think it is something visitors to the site would use it, please leave a comment. I am also contemplating whether I want to give my work away for free for others to use. I would like to get your feedback on whether I should or how I should monetize it. I’d appreciate your comments.
Great job! This is the type of articles you should focus on and not the other crap of guns and other bloggers.
This is reporting we should see in the newspapers, but that’s long gone. If you want to make money off of things like that, start off with limited use, and add different features for a price for those who are interested in more information. Or just provide it free, if one subscribes to some of your services.