|
Introducing Election 2006 Michigan Money Maps
As part of the Election Watch 2006 series,
PSC will begin to publish a series of maps showing the pattern of
political contributions in Michigan. We’ve found mapping to
be a good way of identifying the patterns of large data sets, and—given
that more money will be dropped in Michigan politics than ever before—we’re
also darn curious about where the money is coming from in terms
of ZIP codes, cities versus townships, and multi-county regions
of the state.
We will be examining things such as:
- What heavily voting Republican/Democratic areas
contribute less than expected amounts of money to Republican/Democratic
candidates?
- What areas of the state, on a per capita basis,
contribute the most to candidates or PACs?
- In what multi-county regions (e.g., the greater
Lansing area, the Grand Rapids/Muskegon axis, the southeast Michigan
cohorts) do voters tend to donate more to one party at the top
of the ticket... but split their dollars as you move down the
ballot?
- What areas of the state are most politically
engaged (meaning contributing dollars and votes to the candidates),
and what areas of the state appear less engaged with the entire
political process?
The source of the data is the cumulative contribution
file maintained by the Elections Bureau of the Michigan Department
of State. In addition to being maintained on the Web in a searchable
format, this database is also available for download in raw form.
All you need is patience, a high-speed Internet connection,
a computer capable of sorting through the more than three million
records, someone who knows how to write database queries, and someone
who knows how to make maps. Take those base ingredients, gather
a few political junkies around the table, and start dancing through
the data.
A few notes about the data:
- The cumulative file is composed of all electronically
filed campaign finance reports. While there is information from
prior cycles, it is not complete; for example, while Governor
Granholm filed a good deal of her campaign disclosures electronically
in the 2002 cycle, many more of her campaign’s statements
were filed on paper. (Beginning in 2004, all campaign finance
statements for committees that spend or receive $20,000 or more
per year were required to be filed electronically.)
- To make comparisons between candidates most
fair, we have removed any contribution before January 1, 2005,
both to stay within this two-year election cycle and to closely
observe the period of time when the gubernatorial race was taking
shape.
- By definition, this data only includes regulated
contributions (e.g., $500 per representative; $1,000 per senator;
$3,400 for governor; $68,000 for a state central political party).
Money flowing in from 527s or other unaffiliated or unregulated
groups is not included in these totals.
- All data presented was received in files downloaded
from the secretary of state on September 10, and October 30, 2006—major
filing deadlines. Each map shows the date of record.
- If you want to know more about the data, you
can look for yourself online at the secretary of state’s
website. Visit www.michigan.gov/sos,
click on “Elections in Michigan,” and then on “Campaign
Finance Reporting Searchable Database.” Additional data
notes—as well as numerous other data sets—are available
there.
Go to Election
2006 Michigan Money Maps by County
Go to Election 2006
Michigan Money Maps by ZIP Code
We will be releasing additional maps in future weeks,
and will be updating maps as new data is made available. If you
have suggestions for maps you’d like to see, or comments about
what we’ve done so far, drop us an e-mail at psc@pscinc.com.
Enjoy!
Jeff Williams, Senior Vice President
Craig Ruff, Senior Policy Fellow
|
|
