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Hillary...Rudy... Money!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Hillary, Rudy, Money

Our latest group journalism, or crowdsourcing project, asks you to dig into the details of Hillary Clinton’s and Rudy Giuliani’s latest campaign finance statements and find out what’s interesting, unusual or funny. You can post your findings in this comments section for us and everyone else to see.

How to do it: We’re asking you to go directly to the Federal Election Commission records. Here are explicit directions so you don’t get lost.

For Rudy Giuliani’s filings:

-Click on this link

-In the space beside “Partial Name of Committee” type in “giuliani presidential” (if you just type Giuliani, you could end up with the wrong filing)

-Ignore everything else and just hit enter (or click “send query” at the bottom)

-On the next page, click the first link that says “view” (it should say “OCT QUARTERLY” on the right)

-On the next page, you’ll have 2 options: contributions (“receipts”) or expenses (“disbursements”).

For contributions:

-click on “Schedule A Filings (ITEMIZED RECEIPTS)”

-then click “FOR ALL LINE NUMBERS”

-dig around!

For expenses:

-click on “Schedule B Filings (ITEMIZED DISBURSEMENTS)”

-then click “FOR ALL LINE NUMBERS”

-dig around!


For Hillary Clinton’s filings:

-Click on this link

-In the space beside “Partial Name of Committee” type in “hillary clinton” (if you just type clinton, you could end up with the wrong filing)

-Ignore everything else and just hit enter (or click “send query” at the bottom)

-On the next page, click the first link that says “view” (it should say “OCT QUARTERLY” on the right)

-On the next page, you’ll have 2 options: contributions (“receipts”) or expenses (“disbursements”).

For contributions:

-click on “Schedule A Filings (ITEMIZED RECEIPTS)”

-then click “FOR ALL LINE NUMBERS”

-dig around!

For expenses:

-click on “Schedule B Filings (ITEMIZED DISBURSEMENTS)”

-then click “FOR ALL LINE NUMBERS”

-dig around!


Comments

  • [1] BL Show staff from WNYC October 17, 2007 - 11:11AM

    Please limit comments to your findings from the campaign finance filings. You can post questions about the project, and we'll do our best to answer them.

    We will remove comments that are off topic. Thanks for taking part!


  • [2] Gaines Hubbell from Knoxville, TN October 17, 2007 - 11:29AM

    What if we summarize pages? That way someone could take the comments and do an analysis of (or estimation of), say for example, how many of Clinton's contributors are self-employed. Or how many of Giuliani's contributors are from New York in ratio to the rest of the nation?

    Oh, and can we get a deadline for this Brian?


  • [3] Joan from New Jersey October 17, 2007 - 01:29PM

    Thanks for the challenge NYC -

    this is fun.

    To start - here are some famous names who donated to Hillary Clinton's campaign this quarter -

    Bette Midler

    Amy Yasbeck

    Tovah Feldshuh

    Alexander Baldwin

    Lynn Redgrave

    Sharon Lawrence

    Marlo Thomas

    Khandi Alexander

    Marua Tierney

    An unrelated point - why are Homemakers considered Unemployed? I may not get paid, but trust, I'm employed!


  • [4] Ron Atzmon from Bronx, NY October 18, 2007 - 12:17AM

    1. One of the Hillary Clinton campaign's payees is SUPER-sketchy: More than 400K paid out in the past quarter to one "Financial Innovations Inc." for "printing" services, more than 200K of that was paid out in one day! Almost none of the other expenditures on the list are nearly as large. Google results are scanty, but as I understand, they make promotional items for the campaign. But how can that be SUCH a large expense? It seems all the travel and food service for the quarter doesn't even add up to so much. Google results DO show that the company made some large contributions to the DNC a few years ago..

    2. Who's the staffer with the chutzpah to ask to be reimbursed for spending $1 on a parking meter in DC?

    3. Campaign paid 10K to ASCAP, I assume to use a song (Celine's?). However, they also paid 99 cents to iTunes, presumably to download one song for a particular event?

    4. The Hillary Clinton campaign apparently rents an office in Little Rock for $5,000/month from the William J. Clinton Foundation! I suppose the money goes to a good cause, but it seems they don't pay nearly as much for any of their other offices elsewhere.


  • [5] Laura from Brooklyn October 18, 2007 - 12:22AM

    Rudy? Free love? Who'd a thunk it?

    FREELOVE CONSULTING GROUP

    3830 VALLEY CENTRE DR # 705 PMB 552

    SAN DIEGO, California 92130

    08/02/2007 TRAVEL/PRINTING 305.24

    08/22/2007 FINANCE CONSULTING 5000.00

    Also, interesting that Hillary has 23 pages of dispursements while Rudy has 7.

    Rudy: 3056 Itemized Disbursements

    Hillary: 11,126 Itemized Disbursements

    Too bad the "total disbursement amount" function doesn't seem to work.


  • [6] jf from manhattan October 18, 2007 - 10:16AM

    Ron, 10k to ASCAP... Why do the Clintons use campaign songs by a foreign artists - Fleetwood Mac and Celine Dion? Aren't there any great American musician and songwrtiters?


  • [7] ch from NJ October 18, 2007 - 10:23AM

    here's Giuliani by State

    http://query.nictusa.com/pres/2007/Q3/C00430512/A_STATE_C00430512.html


  • [8] ch from NJ October 18, 2007 - 10:40AM

    More detailed reports for both candidates here:

    Giuliani

    http://query.nictusa.com/pres/2007/Q3/C00430512.html

    Clinton

    http://query.nictusa.com/pres/2007/Q3/C00431569.html


  • [9] ch from NJ October 18, 2007 - 12:55PM

    Here are both candidates Q3 payees in descending order by amount. I saved them as WORD docs and uploaded to mediafire for download.

    http://www.mediafire.com/?1y6w3txpnfx rudy

    http://www.mediafire.com/?30feznt2bq9 hillary


  • [10] Liz from Brooklyn October 19, 2007 - 02:44AM

    So far, I've gone through only the first 3,000 of Giuliani's contributors, but I've found some interesting things. (Sorry, I don't have the stamina to keep track of the actual numbers for these):

    First, an awful lot of people in the oil and gas and mining industries are contributing lots of money.

    Second, lots and lots of doctors and others in the health/pharma industries are big contributors.

    Last, a famous contributor ... Professor Steven Calabresi, one of the founders of the Federalist Society. If Giuliani's elected guess who's coming to the Supreme Court!!!


  • [11] Steven Forbis from New York, NY October 23, 2007 - 04:18PM

    Here are quick links to the filings for October:

    GIULIANI

    Contributions:

    http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/dcdev/forms/C00430512/306848/sa/ALL

    Expenses:

    http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/dcdev/forms/C00430512/306848/sb/ALL

    CLINTON

    Contributions:

    http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/dcdev/forms/C00431569/307570/sa/ALL

    Expenses:

    http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/dcdev/forms/C00431569/307570/sb/ALL


  • [12] Jeff from New Jersey October 23, 2007 - 07:15PM

    I suppose I may be missing the obvious, but why did Guiliani pay these 8 individuals $9.11 each?

    ARCARO, PATRICIA

    BLUE, KAREN

    DELLARIPA, MIKE

    GILBERT, DENNY

    JONES, JOANN

    MALESKI, DAVID

    NARCISSO, ANTHONY

    PUTKOWSKI, CHRISTAL

    Are these staffers donating their time and efforts, and taking only this symbolic pay amount? If so, is this a wise move for a candidate who says that he is not running on 9/11 alone?


  • [13] Jeff from New Jersey October 23, 2007 - 07:22PM

    Ok, I guess I am not going to make such a good reporter ... A quick check of Google revealed, as I predicted, the obvious answer to my question above. Guiliani returned this amount to donors who had contributed the money to avoid appearing as if he was capitalizing off the attacks. I promise to do my research before I post again.


  • [14] h-man from Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn October 23, 2007 - 09:19PM

    -Star Jones, a self-employed lawyer in Manhattan, gave Hillary $750

    -Calvin Klein, a designer in Santa Monica, gave her $2300


  • [15] howard from Farmingdale, NY October 24, 2007 - 12:44PM

    Student support:

    Rudy: 57 students for $43,330

    Hillary: 266 students for $472,798

    I wonder if they all registered to vote?


  • [16] will from onNYTurf.com October 25, 2007 - 10:16AM

    Why don't you use a wiki for this? Using a comment thread like this is totally the wrong tool for this kind of project.


  • [17] Chad Harris from Ridgewood October 25, 2007 - 11:49AM

    Both would bomb Iran and lie about stealing oil there and Iraq.

    It's disgusting.

    Why not do a hypothetical on Ron Paul and Mike Gravel?


  • [18] openresearch October 26, 2007 - 09:48AM

    Helpful web sites that help you, "to track government and legislative information, campaign contributions and the role of money in politics."

    http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/resources


  • [19] h-man from Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn October 29, 2007 - 09:27AM

    hey Jim/Brian/anyone else:

    The CBC has a new show called "Search Engine" and they have their own version of a crowdsourcing project.

    It's called MOB DOCS and actually ends up becoming an audio documentary. AND they pay :)

    http://www.cbc.ca/searchengine/blog/2007/09/mob_docs_assignment_1_what_doe.html


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