{
  "id": "2002-march-april-money-in-and-from-the-bank",
  "slug": "2002-march-april-money-in-and-from-the-bank",
  "url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2002-march-april-money-in-and-from-the-bank.html",
  "year": 2002,
  "month": "March-April",
  "monthNum": 3,
  "headline": "Money in - and from - the bank",
  "kicker": "CAMPAIGN FINANCE",
  "author_name": "Aron Pilhofer",
  "author_title": "",
  "affiliation": "IRE and NICAR",
  "summary": "The Wilmington News Journal investigated a surge in campaign donations from MBNA executives, linking the spending to efforts to pass bankruptcy reform legislation.",
  "keywords": [
    "MBNA",
    "campaign finance",
    "bankruptcy"
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Government & Politics",
    "Business & Economy",
    "Data & Databases"
  ],
  "technologies": [],
  "full_text": "The News Journal in Wilmington, Del., discovered a sudden upsurge in campaign spending by MBNA, one of the nation's largest issuers of credit cards. MBNA executives were the single largest identifiable group of contributors to then-candidate George W. Bush's presidential campaign, giving more than $250,000. MBNA ended up as the most generous campaign contributor among finance/credit companies in 2000, giving more than $3.5 million. The News Journal uncovered memos that showed how top MBNA executives were influencing employees to contribute to candidates the company favored. Campaign-finance reform advocates said it was more than coincidental that the company's interest in national politics came at a time when an important piece of bankruptcy reform legislation was pending in Congress. The project involved compiling data from several campaign finance sources, including raw FEC data and paper filings.",
  "provenance": {
    "extracted_by": "pre-v2",
    "extracted_at": "",
    "verified": true
  },
  "similar": [
    {
      "slug": "1998-july-the-week-long-bankruptcy-series-focused-on-the-following-questions",
      "score": 0.263
    },
    {
      "slug": "2005-septemberoctober-database-answers-bankruptcy-questions",
      "score": 0.226
    },
    {
      "slug": "1997-october-busted-tracking-bankruptcy",
      "score": 0.224
    },
    {
      "slug": "1999-september-tipsheets-on-campaign-finance",
      "score": 0.209
    },
    {
      "slug": "2002-july-august-covering-money-votes-and-power",
      "score": 0.204
    }
  ],
  "html_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2002-march-april-money-in-and-from-the-bank.html",
  "json_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2002-march-april-money-in-and-from-the-bank.json"
}