Facing record field of 12 candidates for Pennsylvania governor, and wanting to get their campaign contributions into an electronic database, we tried a new tack: begging. We asked all the candidates to give us their campaign finance reports on diskette instead of on paper.
We thought this was a pretty creative way to deal with our data entry budget, roughly $12.95 for the year. But creatively speaking, it was nothing compared to the answer we got from the candidates and their handlers.
Four told us it was technically impossible. (The simple response: it isn't. If they can get their computers to spit out reports for the state election bureau, they can create an electronic copy of the file for you and your newspaper).
Two of them told us they couldn't give us the diskettes because they used proprietary software. (Tell them you don't want the software, just the data).
Half of them told us we were asking them to do our work for us. (Not exactly. They'd already done the work, by using the computers for their campaigns. If they were still using paper and pencil for their internal record keeping, as two fringe candidates were, we certainly didn't expect them to create computer files for us).
The bottom line: After several months of persistent phone calls, not-so-gentle prodding and a few arguments, eight of the 10 major candidates provided their contributions on diskette.
It helped that, on the Republican side, the race was so close that no one wanted to take any unnecessary shots from the media; eventually, all the GOP candidates gave us their stuff electronically.
On the Democratic side, Lt. Gov. Mark Singel had a solid lead all the way. We got nothing from Singel before the May 10 primary. Later, with the fall campaign looking close, he decided to send us a diskette.
The data came to us in various formats. We converted it to Paradox, generally using the conversion tools provided by Paradox and Quattro Pro. Our only significant conversion problems involved changing text files into data files; for that we used Monarch software, first brought to our attention (through Appliance) by Tom Boyer of the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot and Ledger-Star. So far, we've used our database:
to identify 170 individuals, law firms, lobbyists, and other special interests giving $1,000 or more to multiple candidates;
to describe how one candidate used connections at the Philadelphia Parking Authority to secure nearly $100,000 in campaign donations from authority contractors and employees;
to keep track of cumulative contributions, making it easier to identify the candidates' top backers.
And whatever stories we produce during the fall campaign will become even more valuable after the next governor takes office.