Subscription-Based Content on BillsandVotes.com
While keeping vote summaries and member rankings available to all, we are preparing to offer extensive subscription based content such as our unique election result “Winrate” analysis, dynamic member profiles, House and Senate voting block analysis, enhanced vote summaries, The Permanent Record and a campaign finance cross reference database. Candidate endorsements are already configured and could be added to your organization's website.
The details of these content options are below:
Dynamic Member Profiles and Voting Blocks: The vote database is currently configured to allow dynamic tagging of members. This means members can be “tagged” based on any data type. For example, demographic tags include rural, Iron Range and suburban. Other tags are party, DFL leadership, GOP leadership and occupation. Any tag can be configured to parse members into groups. Subscribers can then view the voting patterns of blocks of Minnesota’s 201 legislators based on these tags. Combined with Winrate data and vote scores, tags can help your organization to focus on precise member voting behavior.
Enhanced Vote Summaries: Platinum subscribers would have access to more detailed vote summaries. These summaries would include links to House and Senate spreadsheets, Minnesota Management and Budget comments from the Governor’s budget books, media links, stakeholder lists based on committee minutes, committee and floor video links, lobbyist information and more.
Permanent Record: Members who leave the Minnesota Legislature to run for another office will remain in the database. Their votes will be part of the BillsandVotes.com Permanent Record that will only be available to Platinum-level subscribers.
Winrate Data: These are precinct-level election results based on data from the 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008 general elections. The Winrate is the number of races in which the GOP candidate received more votes than the DFL candidate in each voting precinct. In the past four general elections there were 23 races, so the highest Winrate is 23. This data clearly shows where Republicans can win – and where they need to work even harder than normal to gain ground in Minnesota. Linking Winrate data to member’s voting records will prove to be a powerful analytic tool.
Campaign Finance Cross Referencing Database: One item on the wish list is a database of campaign contributions. To be done right, the database would cross reference all cash flows into and out of the bank accounts of candidates, political parties, House and Senate Caucuses and all entities that are required to register with the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board. This is no small chore, but done right it would yield valuable results. Combined with House and Senate vote data, the results will make it easy to follow the money trail right down to the floors of the House and Senate.
Association Score Cards: We could save interest groups the chore of building their annual score cards (and we would do it right!). The database includes all of the yeas and nays related to each vote. Putting together scorecards would be a simple matter of formatting the data.
Please call Bob at 651-492-7208 or send him an email if you would like to discuss a Platinum Membership.