March 20, 2004, 12:17AM
NEW YORK -- It costs you nothing to discover how much your neighbors are contributing to candidates for president.
Simply visit the Web sitefundrace.org and type your address and ZIP code into the "Neighbor Search" tool. You will get a list of what those who live closest to you gave to any of the candidates last year, provided the amount was at least $200.
Your nearest neighbors are listed first, thanks to a technology called geocoding, which matches street addresses with longitude and latitude data. You also can search by names.
Federal election law makes the snooping possible. Presidential candidates are required to disclose contributions of $200 or more, and the Federal Election Commission makes databases available for download.
Campaign contribution data through Dec. 31 are currently available.
The site's developer, Michael Frumin, said Friday that 30,000 to 40,000 people have conducted some 100,000 searches since the launch Wednesday.
Fundrace.org is a project of Eyebeam, a New York organization that explores the intersection of arts and sciences.
Other sites have more extensive databases and search capabilities.
Opensecrets.org, run by the Center for Responsive Politics, lets you search by state, occupation or employer and has data going back to 1989. It also permits searching of so-called soft money donations.
The FEC site, www.fec.gov, also lets you do that using its "advanced search."
ON THE INTERNET FundRace2004 www.fundrace.org Opensecrets www.opensecrets.org FEC www.fec.gov
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