{
  "id": "1998-august-first-ventures",
  "slug": "1998-august-first-ventures",
  "url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1998-august-first-ventures.html",
  "year": 1998,
  "month": "August",
  "monthNum": 8,
  "headline": "FIRST VENTURES",
  "kicker": "Valley of the dollars",
  "author_name": "Hugo Martin",
  "author_title": "Political Reporter",
  "affiliation": "Los Angeles Times",
  "summary": "A political reporter uses computer-assisted reporting (CAR) and database tools to analyze campaign finance data for a hotly contested state Senate race, discovering that most contributions came from outside the district rather than from local residents.",
  "keywords": [
    "campaign",
    "database",
    "analysis"
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Investigative Methods",
    "Government & Politics",
    "Data & Databases"
  ],
  "technologies": [
    "Access",
    "Excel"
  ],
  "full_text": "To be honest, math has always been a four-letter word for me. If it were up to me, the Geneva Convention's list of cruel and unusual punishments would include the task of figuring out percentages. So I was delighted to learn during my first CAR lesson that a computer can be used to sort reams of data, add rows and rows of figures, and oh joy - figure out percentages. My first thought upon taking CAR class was to use the computer to spare me the agony of calculating from those mind-numbingly long campaign finance reports that I was forced to analyze as the political reporter for the San Fernando Valley edition of the Los Angeles Times. With some tips from Sarah Cohen, NICAR's on-the-road trainer, I more than 500 campaign contributions made to the top two candidates for a hotly contested state Senate race in the Valley.\n\nSeeking sources\n\nI started the project with two main goals: Find out where, geographically speaking, the contributions came from and what occupations donated the most money. Then I could compare the two candidates: former assemblyman Richard Katz and city councilman Richard Alarcon.\n\nMy first challenge was converting the data from hard copies of campaign finance reports to a database I could manipulate. Once I downloaded the campaign data into Access, I found lots of missing data, in particular the occupations and addresses of some contributors. To fill the holes, I called the campaign offices for each candidate and entered the information manually.\n\nThe campaign finance data of the Times library included a column that contained the ZIP code for every contributor to the two candidates. I linked the ZIP code listing in the database to a table of district ZIP codes that I created. That showed me how many contributions came from within the district.\n\nI also created separate tables with the ZIP codes for the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles and Sacramento, home of many of the state's lobbying groups and labor unions. I then sorted the contributions by those geographic areas.\n\nLimited local loot\n\nThe results were surprising. District residents and businesses contributed only eight percent of the money raised by each candidate. The vast bulk of contributions came from addresses spread throughout southern and northern California, sizeable amount from Sacramento.\n\nTo sort the contributors by occupation, I created a new column in the campaign database and plugged in generic descriptions for each contributor so that they could be sorted into multiple general categories, such as transportation firms, lawyers, real estate businesses, labor unions and so on.\n\nI then sorted to add the amounts of money generated from each occupation. This did not reveal many surprises. Much of the money came from expected sources.\n\nExcel-baked pie\n\nThe real magic came when I used the Excel program to make pie charts. With a few simple mouse clicks, a chart illustrated how much money came from within and without the district. Another chart showed how much came from lawyers, unions and other groups. This impressed my editors because the numbers were easier to visualize and present to readers.\n\nBut the best part was that Excel automatically figured out the percentages for each slice of the pie.\n\nHugo Martin can be reached by e-mail at Hugo.Martin@latimes.com or by phone at (213) 237-7086",
  "provenance": {
    "extracted_by": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
    "extracted_at": "2026-07-05",
    "verified": true
  },
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  "html_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1998-august-first-ventures.html",
  "json_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1998-august-first-ventures.json"
}