Thread: So fun: Fundrace 2008

Fundrace 2008 is at this URL: [url="http://fundrace.huffingtonpost.com/"]http://fundrace.huffingtonpost.com/[/url]

I found it today and I find it fun, fun, fun. You can type in your ZIP code and find out who donated to political campaigns from your town, how much, to which candidate, and the donor's occupation. An interactive map shows where the donor lives.

It's open records at its best!

You can also search by state, occupation, and employer. As of today, for my search for teacher, I found this:

$5,816,552 was given by people who identified their occupation as "teacher."
$1,484,637 from 1,914 people to Republicans
$4,331,915 from 7,272 people to Democrats

I'm a writer (and a former teacher) and I'm definately going to to write about this site. I know how I'd use it as a journalism teacher, but...

HERE'S MY QUESTION: Other than obvious recreation, how would you use this in a social studies/civics/history classroom?

Thanks.

Diane