Dear Friend,

It’s no secret that the way most U.S. elections are funded is broken, allowing special interest influence and often leaving voters in the dark about where the money is coming from. But there are also proven solutions to address these problems, and I’m pleased to share MapLight’s recent progress.

Building a State-of-the-Art Campaign Finance System for Denver, Colorado

MapLight worked in partnership with the City and County of Denver to launch a brand new, searchable campaign finance and disclosure database called SearchLight Denver last week. The new tool improves transparency, modernizes Denver’s campaign finance records, and ensures ease of use for candidates, campaigns, and the media. It includes standard reporting functions for campaigns, and also provides a dashboard that better displays funding information to the public.

Denver Clerk and Recorder Paul D. López called SearchLight Denver “one of the most advanced systems for a municipality in the country, bringing everything into one place, where it’s transparent, searchable, and current.” We look forward to working with more local and state governments who want to prioritize transparency and ease-of-use to improve their online campaign finance tools.

Highlighting the Role of Big Donors and Outside Money in Oakland, California

Money in politics influences who runs for office, who candidates talk to, who wins, and what policies get enacted — at every level of government. MapLight’s new report, Campaign Cash: The Outsized Role of Money in Oakland Elections, sheds light on campaign funding in Oakland to reveal the sources of candidate fundraising, where donors live, the size of contributions, and the demographics of who donates to campaigns.

Overall, we found campaign contributions came disproportionately from Oakland's richest and whitest neighborhoods, and special interests were a substantial part of candidates’ fundraising. Fortunately, citizen groups in the Fair Elections Oakland coalition are pushing Oakland lawmakers to adopt publicly-funded elections to increase the power of voters over special interests and wealthy donors.

Expanding Public Funding of Elections in Berkeley, California

MapLight successfully pushed the City Council in Berkeley, California to expand the city’s existing public funding of elections program to include the offices of Auditor, School Board, and Rent Board. The program continues to cover candidates for City Council and Mayor. Now candidates for any city office who pledge to accept no more than $50 per person are rewarded with $6 of public funding for every $1 raised from everyday Berkeley residents. So a donor who can afford to give $10 — but not hundreds — has a larger impact on the campaign. It also means that candidates who don’t have access to wealthy donors can successfully fund their campaign with small contributions.

Creating a more transparent, accountable democracy starts with our elections. There’s still a long road ahead, but we’re making meaningful progress. Thank you for your support in the fight for a democracy that truly represents the people.