Fundrace2004, which is shaping up to be an extremely interesting and unique source of election information, has a new feature called Neighbor Search. You put in an address (or ZIP) or the name of a friend/neighbor/co-worker/celebrity and it returns the names, addresses, company names & job functions, and campaign contributions for persons matching the search criteria. Like all public data sets that have previously been available only in dusty books or individually by request (allow 6-10 weeks for delivery), the effect of seeing this data in aggregate and being able to slice it and dice it at will is both thrilling and a little unnerving. Ain't the Internet grand?
Here are a few people and their contributions:
Bill Gates: George W. Bush, $2000
George H.W. Bush: George W. Bush, $2000
Craig Barrett (Intel CEO): Joe Lieberman, $2000; George W. Bush, $2000
Harvey Weinstein (Miramax): Howard Dean, $2000; John Edwards, $2000; Dick Gephardt, $1000; and possibly Wesley Clark, $2000
Larry Lessig: Howard Dean, $2000; John Edwards, $2000
Warren Buffett: Bob Graham, $2000; Wesley Clark, $2000
Jimmy Buffett: Bob Graham, $2000; Wesley Clark, $2000
P. Diddy: Al Sharpton, $2000
Also of interest is this map of Manhattan showing political contributions by building. Lots of Republicans on the UES and lots of Democrats below 14th Street...no surprise there. (via reBlog)
There are 32 reader comments
• Mar 17 2004 • 6:13PM
My neighborhood is pretty happening. Christopher Guest and Jamie Lee Curtis live on my street.
• Mar 17 2004 • 6:27PM
Donald Trump gave $2000 each to Bush and Kerry, the CEO of Time Warner gave $2000 to Bush, type designer Tobias Frere-Jones (who designed the excellent Interstate font family) gave $250 to Dean, and Joan Jett gave $1000 to Dean.
• Mar 17 2004 • 7:33PM
I bet some people are going to get really mad about this. Sure, it's always been available, but that doesn't really seem to sink in for most people until it's on a web site where anybody can pull up that information within seconds.
• Mar 17 2004 • 7:51PM
Steve Jobs' wife gave $2000 to Gephardt and Dean.
Scott: I agree. I'm perturbed by that fact that I now know where P. Diddy lives. Also by the fact that I googled "Laurene Jobs" to see if she was Steve's wife.
• Mar 17 2004 • 8:20PM
The first zip code I thought of to type in was 90210 (remember the TV show?).
Very interesting. I'd like to see the maps of support people could make from this info.
• Mar 17 2004 • 9:02PM
I see a trend that the media (tv, movie) types are donating to Democrats in general. Is it any surprise that last few copyright extensions have been Democrat led bills in the Congress?
• Mar 17 2004 • 9:09PM
Exactly what I was thinking... Jack Valenti.
Yeah, and the address-leak potential is worrying.
• Mar 17 2004 • 10:42PM
George Soros (Investor): Kerry $2000, Graham $2000, Clark $2000, Dean $1000.
Adam Yauch (Beastie Boy): Clark $1000.
Henry Kissinger (fmr Sec of State): Bush $3000.
Rupert Murdoch (CEO News Corp): Bush $2000.
Ted Danson (actor): Dean $2000, Edwards $2000.
Davis Love III (golfer): Bush $2000.
Jerry Springer (talk show host): Kucinich $2000.
• Mar 17 2004 • 11:18PM
No one famous in my Twin Cities neighborhood, not that I was expecting celebrities. I thought it interesting that most of the Dean and Kerry supporters in my area donated smaller amounts of $500 or less, yet every single Bush supporter donated $2,000.
• Mar 17 2004 • 11:28PM
Kissinger gave Bush $3000? I thought you could only give $2000 to each candidate. Hmmm....
• Mar 18 2004 • 12:02AM
Ben Affleck ($2000 to Clark and $1000 to Kucinich) and Charlize Theron ($1000 to Kerry).
• Mar 18 2004 • 12:31AM
Howard Dean: George W. Bush, $2000.
John Edwards: Bush, Clark, Gephardt and Dean. And Edwards.
John Kerry gives to no man.
• Mar 18 2004 • 12:55AM
Affleck gave $1000 to Kucinich? This explains some of his script choices.
• Mar 18 2004 • 12:57AM
Guess who won Ben Stein's money? George Bush.. $1000 bucks...
• Mar 18 2004 • 9:46AM
Help! I'm surrounded by Republicans!
• Mar 18 2004 • 10:17AM
I think you sort of misread the map of NYC. It looks to me like there were many buildings on the UES that gave Republicans between $200 and $25,000, but if you look carefully, there are more than a few buildings that gave Dems over $25K or over $50K. It's a tough map to read. Too bad you can't view a Dem only map and a GOP only map.
• Mar 18 2004 • 10:19AM
Oh, and I love how if you look at the map of DC, they all but eliminated Southeast from the map. For those not familiar with DC, SE is historically a poverty/crime ridden section of the District.
• Mar 18 2004 • 12:27PM
I believe the Bill Gates figure is phony... why would he be listed as "CEO" of Microsoft when, in fact, Steve Ballmer has been CEO of Microsoft since January of 2000? Gates is now "Chairman and Chief Software Architect."
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/bod/
I had heart that he was a Democrat, in any case, but being Canadian I don't pay ultra-close attention to such things.
• Mar 18 2004 • 12:30PM
Not to be snide, but how I love the fact that Sean Combs apparently believes himself to be an "enterperneur."
• Mar 18 2004 • 1:42PM
Jeb (John Ellis) Bush, Gov of FL: $1,000 to GWB. Why not $2,000? Where's the love?
• Mar 18 2004 • 1:53PM
...and to the readers of doonesbury, i don't suppose this is any surprise: Garry Trudeau, Cartoonist: $2,000 to Howard Dean.
• Mar 18 2004 • 2:16PM
Here in Cincinnati, the Reynolds family sticks out in a sea of red.
Mercer Reynolds has been invovled most business and political success W has ever had. For his service, Bush made him ambassador to Switzerland.
Good to see that his kids get jobs in the White House. They must pay their interns well, as Jimmy ponied up 2G for the cause.
• Mar 18 2004 • 2:34PM
Aaron Sorkin:
Edwards: $2000
Gephardt: $2000
Clark: $2000
Dean: $1000
Wait a sec ... I'm starting to think West Wing had a liberal bias ...
• Mar 18 2004 • 2:34PM
This one has been around for a long time.
It's amazing what you can find.
• Mar 18 2004 • 3:41PM
Bob, that's the point of reblog.
• Mar 18 2004 • 3:43PM
Jews seem to give a lot
• Mar 18 2004 • 4:03PM
Is it me or did someone with the P.Diddy troupe misspell 'Entrepreneur'?
• Mar 18 2004 • 5:17PM
is $2000 really the max contribution? clearly some of these people can afford to give more than 2 G's...
• Mar 18 2004 • 6:19PM
Nik: http://www.kottke.org/04/03/fundrace2004-neighbor-search#12238
finsburgh: Even in the best of times, that wouldn't be a neutral observation. These are not the best of times.
• Mar 19 2004 • 6:37AM
I'm not that interested in the political leanings of my neighbors, but I am a little interested in knowing who they are and what they do. Now I can find this out without actually talking to them! Hooray for the Web.
This thread is closed to new comments. Thanks to everyone who responded.
Bryan • Mar 17 2004 • 6:08PM
"Unnerving" is right. This is amazing.