Who donated the most money to State Treasurer Beth Pearce’s first bid for public office in 2012? Which Vermont politicians took campaign cash from tobacco giant Philip Morris during the last election cycle? How much money did renewable energy entrepreneur David Blittersdorf pump into Vermont politics in 2012?

Before this week, those questions were pretty tough to answer.*

To arrive at the first, you’d have to sift through seven PDFs (from seven reporting deadlines) of often handwritten disclosure forms, some as much as 12 pages long. To answer the second, you’d have to do the same as the first for each of the 205 candidates who reported fundraising activities last election. And to answer the third, you’d have to do the same as the second, but you’d also have to keep an eye out for all the entities through which Blittersdorf makes campaign contributions.

Now you don’t. And that’s thanks to nonprofit news organization VTDigger — not the state of Vermont.

Got something to say?

Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!

Paul Heintz was part of the Seven Days news team from 2012 to 2020. He served as political editor and wrote the "Fair Game" political column before becoming a staff writer.

One reply on “Media Note: With Campaign Finance Database, VTDigger Puts the State to Shame”

  1. This is great. Pols are going to be grinding their teeth, they love transparency when it doesn’t pertain to them.

Comments are closed.