The National Institute on Money in State Politics states it is the only nonpartisan, nonprofit organization revealing the influence of campaign money on state-level elections and public policy in all 50 states. The comprehensive and verifiable campaign-finance database and relevant issue analyses are available for free. The site aims to encourage transparency and promote independent investigations of state-level campaign contributions by journalists, academic researchers, public-interest groups, government agencies, policymakers, students and the public at large. This site can be searched by address, may be browsed by state, or use the advanced search to narrow the results by state(s), year(s), or economic interest. The blog, The Money Tale, also includes postings of interest and states it is Nonpartisan. Timely. Transparent.. The Institute receives its data in either electronic or paper files from the state disclosure agencies with which candidates must file their campaign finance reports. The Institute collects the information for all state-level candidates in the primary and general elections and then puts it into a database. Staff members verify that all candidates are represented and that their political party affiliations and win/loss statuses are correct. Researchers then standardize the contributor names and assign political donors an economic interest code, based either on the occupation and employer information contained in the disclosure reports or on information found through a variety of research resources. These codes are closely modeled on designations used by the federal government for classifying industry groups. Database can be searched for contributions by individuals, special interest groups, and business and industry groups. Government agencies within each state supply the data which is compiled by the nonpartisan Institute.
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