My state representative is Chris Turner and the State Senator is Brandon Creighton, both of whom are Republicans. Going with the information retrieved from the Texas Ethics Commission website, the five biggest contributors for Brandon Creighton include PACs donations, friends, individual contributions, Political group contributions, and lobby groups. Similarly, for Chris Turner, the five major contributors were PAC donations, friends, political groups, lobby groups, and individual contributions. The individuals who seem to have contributed the most were wealthy business people who supported the campaigns through major donations. Businesses which appeared to have contributed the most were big companies with huge investments.
Studying the expenditures from the website, for both the state senator and state representative, most of the expenses were on advertising, consultants, politics, lobby groups, and campaign materials. While it is possible that some of the money contributed were banked by the elected officials, from the report, both Senator Brandon and Chris Turner and their campaign teams seem to have used most of the money contributed on advertising and politics. Even so, there is a possibility that some of the money contributed was banked since the report does not provide full information on how the total contributed amount was accounted for. From the report, one evident common pattern is seen in the fact that the contributions from PACs were more than any other form of contribution. Further, the political contributions were more than the un-itemized contributions. The common amount contributed was from 220 558 dollars from PACs.
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In view of this paper, the member of the public would not easily access the information without proper guidance. In fact, without any guidance, it is difficult for one to access any basic information from the Texas ethics commission Website. Easy accessibility of information is determined by the ability of the website to include everyone including people with any form of disability. I expected the web to be designed in a way that it is easy to be used, read, reviewed and accessed by anyone who is able to read and understand simple language. This is, however, not the case with the web as it requires detailed information about the elected officials some of which may not be known by the general public. For example, one may not have access to the zip code of one's area and sometimes one may also not have information on the nickname of the elected official and this may hinder search of information.
In view of this paper, the usefulness of the information to an average voter is hindered by the complexity of accessing the necessary information from the website. While the information from the website would be useful in analyzing elections because of its accuracy, accessibility of information is equally important and as such it is important to make the information to be more accessible to the general public. The website could have used a clear user-focused language and would not have involved the use of detailed information such as zip code of an area or nickname of an elected official to access information on the individual. It is not right to assume that all the members of the public would understand all the complex procedures to access information. The website should be designed in a way that once an individual has the name of the State representative or state senator, the information would be accessible without following more complex procedures.
The Texas Tribune Website is different from the Ethics Commission Website in the fact that the Tribune website provides a range of information while the ethics commission report provides specific information. The information from the Texas Tribune website is more accessible compared to that of the ethics commission website. Another difference between the two websites is seen in the fact that Ethics Commission website provides information in terms of numerical figures used in the election while the Tribune website provides written stories about different topics on the elected official. Accessing information from Tribune website does not involve complex procedures to get any information. Further, one does not have to key in zip area codes to access any information. This, therefore, means that anyone who does not have detailed information about the area codes would still access information from Tribune website.
However, even with its easy accessibility, I still find the information from the Texas ethics commission more valuable for a citizen who wants to understand and analyze the finance reports and election expenditures of their elected officials. This is because the ethics commission website provides accurate figures which are carefully analyzed and divided in a simpler manner that can easily be understood by the general public. This, therefore, means that one who is able to follow the procedure would be guaranteed to get accurate and specific information. The information on the tribune website seems to be out of date for the state senator and state representative because it majorly provides past events on these elected officials some of which are not helpful now. The website provides information on major happenings on the Senate concerning the elected officials. The data provided in this website would be out of date for some elected official who are not making headlines or who are not involved in the major happenings in the Senate.
What concerned me from the assignment is the fact that accessing simple information on the election expenditures of my state senator and state representative involved complex procedures which I did not think existed. I believe that such critical information about elected officials should be made easily accessible to the general public in such a way that with just the name of the elected official and the state name, one would access all the necessary information.
From the assignment, I have learned that there is a strong association between election success and the money spent on the campaigns. Wealth strongly influences the election outcome. The election influence is exercised through money, knowledge on the functioning of the system and friendships. Texas is a state which has often been dominated by Republican candidates is strongly associated by expensive elections.
