Presidential Campaign Finance Map

If you haven’t already seen it, you should check out the FEC’s 2008 Presidential Campaign Finance Map.  It allows anyone to view campaign contributions to parties and to specific campaigns, by state or by zip code [first 3 digits].  For instance, at the time of this posting, Ron Paul has received $6,650 in contributions from folks in Alabama.  You can select his name, then see which zip codes the contributions have come from.  Same with Chris Dodd.  Or, you could select the state of Alabama & see which zip codes the majority of contributions to all have come from.  Eventually you will see the names of the contributors to each campaign.

Note: If a candidate is not listed once you’ve selected a particular state, that is an indication that they haven’t received any contributions from individuals in that state.

State Political Blogs

Stateline.org has a really nice compilation of political blogs, organized by state.  I took a quick look at most of the Alabama blogs, and found that they do a great job of covering Alabama & national politics.  As is usually the case with political blogs, they all seem to have pet issues that make their site different from the others.  [Of course, I also found plenty of coverage of the Seigelman & Scrushy sentencing!]

While checking out one of the blogs, I discovered a Southeastern news blog, voic.us, which covers political news from LA, MS, AL, GA, FL, NC, SC, TN, KY and VA.  I’m going to be adding that to my Bloglines account!

Political Affiliation Trends

At the beginning of the month, Rasmussen Reports released statistics showing that the number of adults who consider themselves Republicans has decreased, as has the number of adults who consider themselves Democrats.  “As a result, the number not affiliated with either major party has jumped to another all-time high—32.9%.”

Election results

Tuesday’s constitutional amendment election resulted in both amendments being approved by wide margins.  While the results have not yet been certified by the Secretary of State’s Office, Governor Riley has already issued a statement on the successful passage of Amendment One.

According to the Birmingham News, “Voter turnout statewide was about 9.6 percent of active registered voters.”

more Browns Ferry news

The Birmingham News is reporting that the Unit 1 reactor at Browns Ferry has begun pumping electricity into TVA transmission lines. The reactor was at 45% power this weekend, and the TVA is estimating that it should be at 100% by the end of the week.

Update: Unit 1 was ‘idled’ on Saturday due to another leak.   Still no updates on the TVA site…

June 5th election

Did you know that there’s a statewide election on Tuesday, June 5th? There are two proposed constitutional amendments to vote on – both having to do with money in some way.

From the AP article: “Amendment 1 would allow the state to issue $400 million in bonds to pay for economic incentives for the ThyssenKrupp steel mill near Mobile and other industrial projects throughout the state” and “Amendment 2 would provide constitutional protection for two trust funds recently set up by the Legislature to save money for the future health care costs of retired state workers and public education employees. Without constitutional protection, the Legislature could raid the funds in the future.”

If, like me, you’re new to voting in Alabama, your voter registration card should tell you where you need to go to vote. If you’re not registered to vote, it’s too late to vote on Tuesday. However, you can find out how to register at the Secretary of State’s site.

If you’re one of the lucky ones who are eligible to vote, the exact language of the proposed amendments are available from the Secretary of State’s Elections Division page.