Clark Howard, the radio consumer advocate, mentioned a website on his show that I’ve found interesting. If you are by nature curious, politically inclined, and/or naturally inquisitive, you will spend hours checking this out. It is FundRace.org, a searchable compilation of the public records of political contributions as reported by the Federal Election Commission.
You can search by name or by neighborhood. Just put in your address, or any other for that matter, and you’ll get a list of the records of those living near you who’ve contributed in this political cycle. What I found most interesting was doing a search by name. Hmmm, what are the big names doing?
At times you’ll have one of those, “oh of course” moments when you learn the obvious. Pat Robertson supporting President Bush or James Hoffa (Teamster President) supporting Dick Gephardt.
Often you a “what!” moment when you encounter the unexpected. For instance, billionaire investor Warren Buffett (investors on this scale are usually by nature conservative) from the conservative breadbasket state of Nebraska supporting both Wesley Clark and Sen. Bob Graham in the Democratic Primary. On the other hand, from the liberal state of Washington, software billionaire Bill Gates (techies tend towards the liberal side of the aisle) gave to the Bush campaign.
What I found most interesting was what I didn’t find. I could dredge up no records for the likes of Martin Sheen, activist Michael Moore, Bill or Hillary Clinton, Christopher Reeve, or Natalie Maines (of Dixie Chicks fame).
Neither could I find contributions listed for Rush Limbaugh, Neal Boortz, Oliver North, James Dobson or Republican strategist Mary Matlin. To be fair to Ms. Matlin, her husband, liberal pit bull, James Carville wasn’t listed as giving either.
‘Course I expect as the next cycle begins in earnest, when we get past the primaries and into the heat of the battle, the contributions will pick up and many of these names will begin to show up on the list.
So if your curious about who’s giving what, or just want to check out your neighbors to see who they support, surf on over. One bit of advise. Famous people, especially celebrities, often work by a pseudonym or stage name. You may have to do some background work to search out their real name for the search to be effective. So be creative, use your imagination and have fun!

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