You may be aware that the United States is currently in a presidential election year. I know there are many television and news outlets helping you navigate the resulting sea of information (and misinformation). I'm not sure how helpful you will find this campaign finance viz in the grand scheme of things, but I hope there are a few "Wait, wut?" or "Srsly?" moments. I know there were for me...
In the previous presidential election cycle, I had heard of Super PACs and had a high-level understanding of how they functioned. This time around, I was super interested in finding out what candidates they support and how much of a financial impact they make. I always found it curious that an individual could only donate a maximum of $2700 directly to a candidate's campaign, while a Super PAC that is "separate" from and "unaffiliated" with said candidate's campaign could receive unrestricted millions from wealthy donors and corporations.
The viz below, armed with Federal Election Commission data as of 3/31/2016, takes a look at the Independent Expenditure landscape, which is overwhelmingly dominated by Super PACs. Do you spot any interesting trends? I've listed a few of my favorites below...
"Wait, wut?" Jeb Bush had a third party spend more than $87M on his behalf, and he managed to win zero states and four delegates? Impressive!
Republican backers are outspending Democratic counterparts (in terms of Independent Expenditures) by more than 13-to-1? "Srsly?"
This obviously isn't comprehensive of the entire campaign financing landscape, but I'm hoping to tackle this again in the future. We do have until November after all...
In the previous presidential election cycle, I had heard of Super PACs and had a high-level understanding of how they functioned. This time around, I was super interested in finding out what candidates they support and how much of a financial impact they make. I always found it curious that an individual could only donate a maximum of $2700 directly to a candidate's campaign, while a Super PAC that is "separate" from and "unaffiliated" with said candidate's campaign could receive unrestricted millions from wealthy donors and corporations.
The viz below, armed with Federal Election Commission data as of 3/31/2016, takes a look at the Independent Expenditure landscape, which is overwhelmingly dominated by Super PACs. Do you spot any interesting trends? I've listed a few of my favorites below...
"Wait, wut?" Jeb Bush had a third party spend more than $87M on his behalf, and he managed to win zero states and four delegates? Impressive!
Republican backers are outspending Democratic counterparts (in terms of Independent Expenditures) by more than 13-to-1? "Srsly?"
This obviously isn't comprehensive of the entire campaign financing landscape, but I'm hoping to tackle this again in the future. We do have until November after all...
