Presidential Power Map Methodology

The Revolving Door Project collected information for this map from the following sources:

1) The lists of bundlers that current and former candidates for the Democratic nomination have themselves disclosed (some bundlers have been excluded if they were not associated with any of the sectors Revolving Door Project analyzed);

2)  known bundlers for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 cycle and for Barack Obama in the 2008 and 2012 cycles;

3) campaign finance reporting from a variety of respected outlets; and

4) our own queries for donors from the top 10 to 15 companies in a given sector. Those sectors are:

  • Agriculture/Big Food (Unilever, etc…)
  • Healthcare
  • Energy 
  • Retail
  • Law
  • Pharmaceutical 
  • Finance (general)
  • Finance-Private Equity
  • Finance-Banking
  • Finance-Hedge Fund
  • Finance-Venture Capital
  • Real Estate
  • Insurance
  • Accounting
  • Tech
  • Telecommunications
  • Film/Entertainment
  • Defense
  • Consulting
  • Politics
  • Federal Elected Official
  • Public Relations
  • Bailout Relevant Industries (Airlines, Casinos, and Hotels)

Note on sectoral definitions:

  • Finance: When possible our team sorted individuals in the finance sector into one of four buckets: Banking, Hedge Fund, Private Equity, and Venture Capital. When an individual did not fit into any of these categories, however, they were sorted into the general category, finance.
  • Politics: This sector includes anyone working in the lobbying industry, registered or unregistered, unelected federal political figures, and elected local political figures

Determining sectoral affiliation: The Revolving Door Project examined these individuals’ employment histories and personal relationships to determine what major sectors each is associated with. An individual is associated with a sector if he or she has at one point worked or invested in that sector or has derived significant wealth from that sector via other means (e.g. inheritance or marriage). Family members who do not work or who work in a sector that is not included in our analysis may be listed as “spouse of,” “son of,” etc. They are marked as associated with their relevant family member’s primary company and sector.

Individuals can be associated with more than one sector.

Other criteria:

We are only tracking individuals who have given over $1000, unless they fit within categories 1 (current bundler) or 2 (Clinton or Obama bundler).

Super PACs

We have included donations to two candidates’ affiliated super PACs (Unite the Country for Joe Biden and VoteVets for Pete Buttigieg) as if they were donations directly to the candidates. We have also included the names and information of several people who gave over $10000 to candidates’ affiliated super PACs but not directly to the candidates. 

This figure is up-to-date through Q4 of 2019 for campaign committees and through February 2020 for Super PAC donations.