Thursday, June 07, 2007

June 13 - Project Sunlight: tracking campaign contributions

The Citizens for Better Government in New York (CBGNY) will be holding a
public meeting at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, June 13 in the Gleason Auditorium of
the Rochester Public Library. The guest speaker will be Blair Horner,
former Executive Director of NYPIRG who was tapped by State Attorney General
Andrew Cuomo to serve on his staff. Horner is now working on Project
Sunlight, an effort to make it more possible to trace the money flows
between campaign contributors and recipients, among other things:

Project Sunlight will collect, standardize and publish information that is
now scattered and difficult to access, and put that information in one
easy-to-use, easy-to-search database posted on the Internet. This
initiative will be a critical component of the reform effort to transform a
culture of secrecy and insider-dealing into a culture of integrity, openness
and honesty. It will both prevent abuses as well as provide citizens with a
mechanism to shed light on some of those that do occur.

Horner's remarks will focus on Project Sunlight, the vision and the
timetable. In this time of heightened interest in campaign finance reform
and other progressive measures, come learn about this potentially valuable
tool. CBGNY will conduct a brief business meeting before the presentation,
but all are welcome and invited.

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