Center for Responsive Politics

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) is a nonpartisan research group based in Washington, D.C. that tracks money in politics, and the effect of money on elections and public policy.^[1] Founded in 1983, the nonprofit Center aims to create a more educated voter, an involved citizenry and a more responsive government. CRP’s website OpenSecrets.org has won four Webby Awards (2001, 2002, 2006, 2007) for being the best politics site online. Support for CRP comes from a combination of foundation grants and individual contributions. The Center accepts no contributions from businesses, trade associations or labor unions.

OpenSecrets.org is the online incarnation of a project the Center launched on paper in the 1980s. OpenSecrets.org provides freely available, easy-to-use databases to track federal campaign contributions and lobbying in a variety of ways, such as by industry and interest group. Other popular resources include the personal financial disclosures of every member of Congress, the President and top members of the administration. Users can also search their own ZIP codes to learn how their neighbors are distributing their political contributions.

Sheila Krumholz has been the Center's executive director since December 2006, having served for eight years as CRP’s Research Director. She first joined the CRP staff in 1989 and was assistant editor of the very first edition of the printed volume of Open Secrets.

On October 30, 2007, the Center's communications director, Massie Ritsch, was featured on the Colbert Report.