We’re #49!

The Campaign Disclosure Project recently released its report, Grading State Disclosure 2007, in which states were evaluated on “four specific areas of campaign finance disclosure: state campaign disclosure laws; electronic filing programs; accessibility of campaign finance information; and the usability of state disclosure web sites.”

Alabama received an overall grade of F and rank of 49 (Wyoming is #50; Washington is #1).  In the state-by-state summary, it is noted that Alabama’s rank in usability of the disclosure web site dropped 15 places from the 2005 to 2007 reports.

Previous reports available: 2005, 2004, 2003

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.