It’s no secret that legislators receive “contributions” from lobbyists, but a new, very powerful Web site, MAPLight.org, does something unprecedented: it correlates lawmakers’ voting records with the money they’ve received from special-interest groups.

So now you can see not only how much money lobbyists from pharmaceutical companies, the tobacco industry and more are giving government officials (it’s not unusual for the contributions to reach six figures), but you can see exactly how this money is buying their votes.

The information presented in this site is invaluable, but it does take a bit of navigating to figure the site out. I highly recommend checking out their six-minute video tour before you start exploring, as it really helps explain the site.

Right now, MAPLight only covers California lawmakers and U.S. Congress, which is more than enough to get the gist that -- in the overwhelming majority of cases -- our legislators are being bought off by lobbyists … and the drug companies are leading the pack.

MAPLight.org

The New York Times May 24, 2007