A former California state senator is establishing a database allowing the public to discover how lobbyists influence legislation. San Blakeslee’s project will debut May 6 as the Digital Democracy Project (www.digitaldemocracy.org) with videos of legislative hearings. When politicians speak a simultaneous graphic of their major campaign contributors surfaces. When lobbyists speak, a list will appear of their clients and issues. (San Francisco Chronicle, April 26, 2015, by Joe Garofoli)
Blakeslee worked with a think tank at Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo to develop the database and received a $1.2 million grant to implement it from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. The plan is to also include campaign finance, committee membership and voting records in the database. (The Sacramento Bee, December 212, 2014, by Jim Miller)
– See more at: https://firstamendmentcoalition.org/2015/04/influential-lobbyists-can-now-be-tracked-in-the-california-state-legislature/#sthash.8Bns83Nk.dpuf