About
Political transparency should be a public good.
A nonpartisan platform that cross-links public records to reveal the connections between money and political power.
Why We Built This
Poliscope started in early 2026, in the wake of political unrest in Minnesota. Watching events unfold, it became clear that the connections between money and political power were difficult for ordinary people to trace.
Campaign contributions, lobbying expenditures, government contracts, and congressional voting records all live in separate government databases, each with its own format, identifiers, and search tools. We decided to build a tool that makes those connections visible — regardless of which side benefits from the transparency.
No editorial layer. No partisan framing. Just the data, linked together and searchable.
What Poliscope Does
Cross-source entity linking
One entity profile that shows a company's campaign contributions, lobbying activity, government contracts, and SEC filings together.
Connection tracing
Find the shortest financial path between any two people or organizations in the system.
Tools for every audience
A web interface for citizens, a REST API for developers, and AI-compatible interfaces (MCP) for researchers and newsrooms.
Eight federal data sources
FEC, Congress.gov, USAspending, LDA, SEC EDGAR, GLEIF, OGE financial disclosures, and congressional gift & travel filings.
Independence by Design
Poliscope is built to be vendor-independent from the ground up. The platform’s infrastructure is designed to be portable across cloud providers, and every AI or data processing component can be replaced with open-source alternatives.
A platform that aims to be a neutral source of political transparency data should not be structurally dependent on any single technology company. No corporate sponsors. No political donors. No PAC affiliations.
Built For
Journalists
Data sources, processing methodology, and known limitations — everything you need for verification.
Data & Methodology →Developers
REST API, MCP server for AI agents, OpenAPI spec, and quick-start guides.
Developer Docs →Researchers
Data coverage periods, update cadences, entity resolution approach, and bulk access.
Methodology Details →Everyone
Search politicians, companies, donors, and lobbying activity.
Start Exploring →Built by Lab 1908 LLC