New York Times Rolls Out Campaign Finance API

The New York Times announced the opening of their Developer Network a couple of days ago. It’s their “API clearinghouse and community.” It might seem kind of weird that a newspaper company has an API, but as many FlowingData readers know, the Times prides itself on innovation.

The Campaign Finance API is currently available:

With the Campaign Finance API, you can retrieve contribution and expenditure data based on United States Federal Election Commission filings. Campaign finance data is public and is therefore available from a variety of sources, but the developers of the Times API have distilled the data into aggregates that answer most campaign finance questions. Instead of poring over monthly filings or searching a disclosure database, you can use the Times Campaign Finance API to quickly retrieve totals for a particular candidate, see aggregates by ZIP code or state, or get details on a particular donor.

For anyone who has tried to play with FEC data, myself included, knows that this API is cool. You could get the data directly from the FEC, but it’s a bit of a painstaking process. Now you don’t have to sift through a bunch of reports or an awkward user interface.

The Movie Review API is next in line. After that, who knows, but it’s a good step forward for The Times.

[via serial consign]