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Lesson 3 of 5·12 min·+40 impact

How to Read OpenSecrets

Key Concepts

Bundling(OpenSecrets / FEC)
When a well-connected individual collects many smaller donations from colleagues, employees, or associates and delivers them to a campaign as a package. Bundlers gain influence disproportionate to any single donation because they deliver volume.
Industry Classification(OpenSecrets)
OpenSecrets categorizes every political donation by the donor's industry. This lets you see that a representative's 'top donor' isn't just a person — it's a signal about which industries have the most access.

# How to Read OpenSecrets

Hook: Everything you need to follow the money is already public. The Federal Election Commission requires disclosure of all campaign contributions over $200, all PAC expenditures, and all lobbyist registrations. OpenSecrets organizes this data into something readable. Here's how to use it.

Step 1: Look Up Your Representative

Go to opensecrets.org. In the search bar, type your representative's name or your state and district.

You'll land on a profile page showing:

  • **Top donors** — Organizations whose employees and PACs gave the most. Note: "Employees of X" means individuals who work at that company donated; "PAC of X" means the company's political action committee donated.
  • **Top industries** — Which sectors fund this representative? If their top industry is "Pharmaceuticals/Health Products" and they sit on the Health Committee, that's worth knowing.
  • **Total raised** — How much money they've raised, and from what sources (individual vs. PAC).

Step 2: Read the Industry Page

Navigate to Industries → pick a sector (Pharmaceuticals, Finance, Oil & Gas, etc.).

The industry page shows: - Total lobbying spend per year - Top recipients in Congress (who gets the most money from this industry) - Party split — how the industry distributes money between parties - Revolving door — former government officials now working as lobbyists for this industry

Step 3: Check the Revolving Door

The revolving door database tracks people who move between government and lobbying. This matters because:

A former Congressional staffer who becomes a pharmaceutical lobbyist brings their personal relationships, institutional knowledge, and access with them. Their value to the company isn't their policy expertise — it's their Rolodex.

Step 4: Look at Outside Spending

Under Outside Spending, you can see super PAC expenditures for or against any candidate. This is often where the biggest money flows — and it's the spending that Citizens United made possible.

Pay attention to: - Who funded the super PAC — Some PACs have a single donor writing $10M+ checks - What they spent on — TV ads? Digital? Mailers? - Timing — Big outside spending spikes in the final weeks before an election

Exercise

Look up your own representative right now. Write down their top 3 donors and top 3 industries. Then ask yourself: do their votes align with the interests of those donors? The data doesn't prove causation — but patterns are patterns.

The Key Insight

Transparency is only useful if someone looks. The data is public, but fewer than 5% of Americans have ever visited OpenSecrets or the FEC database. The system relies on that ignorance. Every person who learns to read this data weakens the power of undisclosed influence.

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