Political Science Research Resources

“The Center for Responsive Politics has been around for over 25 years and they are primarily focused on ‘tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy.’ The Scout Report last profiled the site in 1999, and it remains a very useful place for anyone with an interest in political action committees (PACs), congressional races, and industry profiles. Visitors to the homepage will see the ‘Capital Eye’ weblog front and center, and it’s a good place to start. The rest of the material is divided into sections that include ‘Politicians & Elections’, ‘Influence & Lobbying’, ‘News & Analysis’, and ‘Action Center’. If you’re looking for political donation information and related materials, check out the ‘Search’ engine on the right-hand side of the homepage. Here visitors can type in a ZIP code, organization, keyword, industry, or name and retrieve publicly available information about campaign donations and the like. For those who want to receive regular updates, there’s the ‘MyOpenSecrets’ area. Here interested parties can ‘watchdog’ all the data they want via their handy user interface.”Ê[KMG - Internet Scout Report]