InteractiveDataVis-Portfolio

Interactive Data Visualization Portfolio

Who Pays NY? Exploratory Tool

A NY Campaign Finance Data Exploration Project

The 2016 race totally transformed what what was considered possible via small dollar donations and a reliance on volunteer labor for outreach to voters. It inspired politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and led to her ultimate victory. This tool seeks to help answer questions about who the traditional major players for political contribution are in New York state and to show how are they relating to this new class of politicians at the state-level? Additionally, this tool uncovers the donor overlap between specific politicians. The goal of the project is to help people who are interested in NY state politics better understand the “players” in Albany and help local journalists who are looking for breadcrumbs that might lead to stories.

Long Abstract

Early Mockup of the Project

Technical Documentation

View on github

Who Pays NY? A Narrative

A NY Campaign Finance Data Narrative

It became clear working with the campaign finance data for the Who Pays NY? Exploratory Tool that there are major repeat donors who donate a lot of money across politicians. This project explores who those donors are and what politicians benefit the most from it. It also includes information about the donations to Cuomo from healthcare corporations in the wake of the news from mid-May that he hid a provision that protected owners and operators of nursing homes from liability during the public health crisis. The goal is to give an overview of the donor and beneficiary landscape in New York state.