Newsroom
Original Anti-Corruption Action case studies, alongside reporting from nonprofit newsrooms we republish with permission. Where our data supports it, we pair a story with our own companion analysis. We follow the committees and donors it names one layer further back, through the itemized FEC receipts, IRS grant filings, and lobbying disclosures in our database.
Who Paid for the Data Centers
The data center boom was sold as private investment. But the political money behind it is a public record: the utilities that will build the plants, the hyperscalers that will fill them, and the governors, legislative leaders and utility commissioners they paid. The sales-tax exemptions, gas plants and cost-allocation rules followed in 16 states and Washington. This case study reads the filings side by side with the votes.
By Anti-Corruption Action
The Rules Came First
Money, lobbying, and the unmaking of produce-safety oversight. The conventional story of the 2026 lettuce outbreak is a million-dollar check and a White House dinner. But the corrupt system built up over several years. This case study looks at contributions, lobbying filings, and the rule-making calendar side by side, using the FEC and the Senate lobbying databases.
By Anti-Corruption Action
‘PACs galore’: Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary is now a super PAC battleground
Outside groups have poured more than $52 million into Michigan's open-seat Senate primary, second only to Texas. That money overwhelms the candidates' own fundraising. OpenSecrets maps the four super PACs driving it. Our companion analysis follows each of them one layer deeper: who capitalizes them, what they did last cycle, and where the disclosure gaps are.
By Joedy McCreary, OpenSecrets