http://blogs.kqed.org/lowdown Decoding the news Sat, 25 May 2013 03:16:44 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5 http://blogs.kqed.org/lowdown/2012/10/23/following-the-money-whos-paying-for-which-proposition/ http://blogs.kqed.org/lowdown/2012/10/23/following-the-money-whos-paying-for-which-proposition/#comments Tue, 23 Oct 2012 16:00:56 +0000 Matthew Green http://blogs.kqed.org/lowdown/?p=4233 Individuals and organizations are spending millions in this election to win support for, or to defeat, a variety of propositions on California’s ballot. Anyone who’s watched even a smidgen of TV in the last two months can attest to the inundation of prop commercials out there. Often times, the names, affiliations, and locations of the … Continue reading →]]> Individuals and organizations are spending millions in this election to win support for, or to defeat, a variety of propositions on California’s ballot. Anyone who’s watched even a smidgen of TV in the last two months can attest to the inundation of prop commercials out there. Often times, the names, affiliations, and locations of the big funders (who are oftentimes out-of-state groups) are left intentionally vague – organizations like Americans for Responsible Leadership, a conservative Arizona-based group that’s donated $11 million in favor of Prop 32. Such opaqueness makes it nearly impossible, from the ads alone, to decipher a funder’s political affiliation or long-term agenda. So, a little sleuthing can go a long way to find out who’s behind what. Bottom line: you always gotta follow the money! And the Vote’s Edge project at MapLight – a nonpartisan, nonprofit research firm – makes it pretty easy to do just that. Check out their cash flow tracking app. ]]> http://blogs.kqed.org/lowdown/2012/10/23/following-the-money-whos-paying-for-which-proposition/feed/ 0