The U.S. Metros With the Most Political Influence

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/politics/2013/10/metros-most-political-influence/7334/



Political campaign donations are typically reported to the Federal Election Commission by ZIP code, which is not the most useful format for wrapping your head around the financial influence of whole cities or counties. Working with the Sunlight Foundation, though, the Philadelphia-based geo-spatial firm Azavea (we first encountered them here) has done the painstaking work of geocoding years of individual campaign contributions to candidates in federal elections. This makes it possible to more easily map and analyze the data by geography.

The first product of that effort is a great series of county-by-county interactive maps that Sunlight and Azavea released today. They show not just which parties are on the receiving end of whose money, but where that money is geographically concentrated. In the 2012 election cycle, for instance, Azavea's Lena Ferguson calculated that just 10 counties – out of more than 3,000 nationwide – were responsible for 30 percent of all contributions made by individual donors (to political campaigns and PACs). All 10 represent major metro areas:

New York County, New York
Washington, D.C.
Los Angeles County, California
Cook County, Illinois
Clark County, Nevada
Harris County, Texas
Fairfield County, Connecticut
Dallas County, Texas
Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Palm Beach County, Florida