Giving by the numbers

S.J. CAHN

Here’s an example of just how far we’ve advanced in the past seven or

so years.

About this time of year in 1997, I was working in Washington,

D.C., for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Among the grunt-level work I

was doing was compiling lists of major political donors from

Missouri.

There were three sources. You could walk over to the Federal

Election Commission’s office and go through the paper records. You

could download spreadsheet-type reports from the FEC’s website. Or

you could hope the folks over at the Center for Responsive Politics

had done the work right and take information from there. (Often, if

your mission was different enough from theirs, their list wasn’t

entirely helpful.)

Today, there are myriad websites that have done all the hard work.

The Center for Responsive Politics’ site, https://www.open

secrets.com, is still a mainstay. A key feature on the home page

is the ability to look up an individual donor.

Another one of note that has arrived lately (you can tell because

it prominently displays President Bush and Sen. John Kerry) is

https://www.fundrace.org. It features two different searches.

The first maps out donations by cities, with New York and then Los

Angeles leading the way (Houston’s big, too).

The more interesting one, though, and the one that so clearly

demonstrates the advances in the online world, is the “neighbor

search.” It allows you to plug in your address or an individual’s

name (like opensecrets.com) and see who’s giving to whom.

A search using the Pilot’s office as a starting point found the

following (and this is just folks who are at least somewhat in the

public eye, and, yes, it reads a bit like a gossip column):

Alan Beek, who apparently lives 1.38 miles from the Pilot, gave

$250 to Dennis Kucinich.

A.G. Kawamura, whom Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently named the

state’s food and agriculture secretary, gave $2,000 to Bush.

Mark Ley, the chief financial officer for the Irvine Co. (although

displayed here at “The Invine, Company”) also gave $2,000 to the

president.

Larry Higby, head of the New Majority and president of Apria

Healthcare, who lives a cool 2.24 miles from the Pilot, followed the

trend with a $2,000 donation to the president.

Beverly and Bob Lewis, of horse racing fame, each plunked down

$2,000 to Bush. They are among a block on Via Lido Nord that is

financially backing the president.

UC Irvine professor and community activist Judy Rosener (a former

coastal commissioner) so far has proven more politically charitable

than her husband, Joseph. He’s given $320 to Kerry and $250 to Rep.

Dick Gephardt. She has given $1,500 to Gen. Wesley Clark and $1,000

to former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.

They live 2.61 miles from the Pilot, by the way.

Milan Panic, the founder of ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. and former

leader of Yugoslavia, appears to be one of the more involved donors.

He’s given $2,000 to Kerry, Gephardt and Sen. John Edwards, plus

$1,000 to Sen. Bob Graham.

Paul Folino, chief executive of Emulex Corp., and his wife,

Daranne, each contributed $2,000 to Bush.

The Samuelis, Henry and Susan of Broadcom fame, each threw $2,000

Sen. Joe Lieberman’s way. They live a cool 3.2 miles from the Pilot.

Righteous Brother Bill Medley gave $2,000 to Bush, obviously in an

attempt to make sure Bush doesn’t lose that presidential feeling.

The list finally started spreading outside of Newport Beach and

Costa Mesa as it picked up people in the far reaches of Corona del

Mar and Newport Coast. Our farthest Newport-Mesa neighbor lived 6.15

miles from the Pilot on Fiore in Newport Coast. The self-employed

attorney donated $300 to Bush’s cause.

So, there’s an example of “advancement.” Questions are: Is it an

improvement? Is it invasion of privacy? Would you be more or less

likely to contribute knowing how easily your neighbors could find out

about your donation?

If I get responses, I’ll print them next week.

* S.J. CAHN is the managing editor. He may be reached at (949)

574-4233 or by e-mail at s.j.cahn@latimes.com.