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CAMPAIGN 2004 CONTRIBUTIONS Neighbor's pick can be found
online
NEW YORK - (AP) -- It costs nothing to
discover how much your neighbors are contributing to candidates for
president.
Just visit the website http://www.fundrace.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.
Visitors can also 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, and the site's developer, Michael Frumin, plans to add
more information as it becomes available.
Frumin said Friday that 30,000 to 40,000 people have conducted
some 100,000 searches since the feature was launched Wednesday. |