Open Secrets (Center for Responsive Politics) is a website that offers the behind the scenes information to politics. This is also known as the money trail.

The link will take you to the donations for each Congress-member in California. http://www.opensecrets.org/races/ (Choose the state of California) Pick a representative in the state of California. See how much money they raised in the 2012 election.

Due to the changes in campaign finance laws (Citizens United- 2010) there has been an increase in campaign contributions. 2012 was the first national election to see the impact of Citizens United. For this assignment your job will be to speculate on the impact of corporate contributions on the future of California and it’s policy making. 

Guiding questions: • What corporations provided campaign contributions for each candidate? • What major political issues are these corporations interested • Why do you think the corporation chose that candidate? • Why did some candidates raise more money than others? • What else did you find out about your candidate on Open secrets? Use the conclusion to share your personal beliefs and ideas on the impact of the Supreme Court decision. The majority of your paper should be factual and reporting what you found in your research.

Use the following websites for your assignment. (copy and paste links)

http://www.storyofstuff.org/movies-all/story-of-citizens-united-v-fec/

http://dyn.politico.com/tag/citizens-united

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/21/citizens-united_n_2519178.html

This is a midterm graded paper, I you must read and follow all the instruction then write the paper. write it like a college student, write your own opinion and perspective. And your paper should contain all the information from the guiding questions.