Cecil Times, which continues doing insightful local journalism, just published a fascinating piece on its web site about election campaign contributions from the county. We enjoyed reading it since it provides a deeper examination of a local issue, something we think residents of the county want. Thus we’ve clipped the opening paragraphs, but please click on the link at the end to read the full installment. Thanks Cecil Times for continuing to provide readers with informative stories and opinion pieces.
Cecil Times, Oct. 15, 2008 – Show Me the (Cecil County) Political Money
From Woodward and Bernstein and Watergate to the Hollywood film, “Gerry Maguire,” there is something to be said for the phrases “follow the money” and “show me the money.” So in this election year, there are some interesting financial tidbits to be gleaned from looking at databases of donations to federal candidates (President or member of Congress) and national political party committees and PAC’s (political action committees) by residents of Cecil County.
Spend a few hours searching on databases of the independent, non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics (www.crp.org) and their related political money database (www.opensecrets.org) and you will find some revealing trends in donations to federal candidates and political committees by residents of Cecil County, MD. This is a very reputable operation, which parses Federal Elections Commission data into a more user-friendly format. [But our research found a significant glitch in reporting of donations from one zip code in Cecil County—based on a repeated entry with a mis-placed comma. We advised CRP of our findings and await their correction of the database.]
Nevertheless, the data show some interesting trends in how Cecil County residents are voting with their wallets this year, in comparison with the last time there was a presidential and Congressional election in 2004
[Article Continues on Cecil Times Blog — Click here to read the full piece]
Someone Noticed 