Mother Jones Makes a Map of the Dark-Money Universe

“If Citizens United was the Big Bang of a new era of money in politics, here’s the universe it formed: rapidly expanding super-PACs and nebulous 501(c) groups exerting gravitational pull on the 2012 election.”

Such is the legend above the “Interactive Map of the Dark-Money Universe” that left-leaning magazine Mother Jones unleashed on the world today. The work of writers and coders working for the magazine, the map acts as visual aid for understanding the influence that big money donors are able to wield in the current political climate. Where possible the team has provided the names of the donors. Yet as the map makes clear: sometimes that information is not forthcoming.

That’s only a partial screenshot above, and it’s totally inert. Head over to Mother Jones to check out the real thing and read up on their methodology.