That convention-busting piece of data is one of the many surprises released Wednesday from a novel political ranking system that uses public campaign finance data to plot where potential White House contenders fall on the political spectrum. The results were provided exclusively to CNN before Wednesday’s release.
Charting the course of a presidential candidate’s money may be just as — if not more – important than keeping track of the words coming out of their mouths, according to the algorithm built by Stanford University researchers at Crowdpac, a for-profit group that rates candidates by their previous voting records, statements and campaign finance data.
The Crowdpac method suggests the money given to and from candidates creates a marker to map a candidate’s political DNA.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is the most moderate Republican considering a bid for the White House, according to Crowdpac’s methodology. Jeb Bush is the potential candidate ideologically nearest to Mitt Romney, the party’s presidential nominee in 2012. Both men are considering runs in 2016. Among Democrats, Vice President Joe Biden stands closest to the political center.
Founders of the political start-up hope users will be able to make more informed decisions when they donate to candidates. Crowdpac wants to help with that too, with the unveiling of a new way for donors to create a slate of candidates and give money to them based on their ideological ranking.
Crowdpac’s findings — along with its new way to give money to campaigns – include 25 potential White House contenders, drawing from an exhaustive body of data. The algorithm displays the contenders on a liberal–conservative spectrum, and rates each person on 15 issue areas.
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One of the goals, Hilton said, is to increase engagement between donors and candidates in a way that lets voters show their support publicly in ways that haven’t been possible before. (The only catch is that Crowdpac will pocket an 3 percent fee and an additional 5 percent, which will go to Democracy Engine, a processing company.)
The idea is not totally new—the FEC granted similar privileges to the Democratic fundraising group Act Blue in 2006—but Crowdpac is the first to provide a platform to donate to any candidate from either party who has expressed interest in a presidential bid.
“Until now, this process of figuring out whether the candidates have enough money and support to run has taken place behind closed doors because they can’t officially raise money,” Hilton said. “We are opening up that process to everyone.”
