A link to the press release can be found here. Powered by Tableau

. . March 19, 2012—MapLight announces the launch of a new Voter Guide, available in both English and Spanish, profiling California's ballot propositions. The MapLight Voter Guide provides journalists and voters with a snapshot view of each proposition's summary information—what a 'YES' or a 'NO' vote would mean, the projected financial impact of the proposition, campaign arguments by proponents and opponents—and campaign finance data—money raised for and against a proposition and a top 10 list of contributors for and against. In coming weeks the Voter Guide will be expanded to include endorsements, news, editorials, and advertisements.

MAPLIGHT'S NEWLY LAUNCHED TOPIC PAGES ALLOW JOURNALISTS AND CITIZENS TO SEARCH FOR BILLS BY ISSUE AREATransparency Tool Provides A Snapshot View of Bills by Issue Area (e.g., Technology and Communications) and the Campaign Contributions from Organizations Seeking to Influence those Bills

It's Our 7th Year Anniversary!

Feb. 7, 2012 - In collaboration with Tableau Public, MapLight has presented data in a visualization showing which companies and organizations have contributed the most to the the sitting members of Congress from each state.

January 12, 2012–MapLight announces the launch of its Company pages for U.S. Congress and the CA and WI Legislatures. The new Company pages profile top contributing companies and organizations, ranking them according to the total contributions they have made, documented bill positions they have taken, and bill positions they have "won." Company pages also show total contributions from related companies and industries and MapLight's latest related research findings. Journalists and citizens can sign up to receive this information via RSS feed.

January 21, 2012 - With its disastrous Citizens United decision two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court unleashed corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections. By the court's invented criteria, this unlimited spending does not corrupt American democracy so long as it's "independent" of candidates' own campaigns. The court also promoted transparency — disclosure of who funds our politicians — as a key ingredient in our democracy. Two years later, this independence and transparency are, in practice, merely myths.