I am a political fundraiser, and thus by nature was addicted to tray.com. For those of you unfamiliar, tray.com presented campaign contribution data in an extremely easy-to-read, easy-to-search format. Not only did I use it professionally, but also recreationally. It was like a drug. Until my dealer cut off my supply on one fine September day in 2007 (I believe it was) and it vanished. POOF. Into thin air! No warning, never to be seen again, and only to be replaced by its bastard child, CQ Moneyline. Not only does CQ Moneyline charge moolah to look at their stupid data that is free to the public, but they have completely changed the format, the best and most important feature of tray.com. I would venture to say it would be worth forking over dinero if still kept in the same format. But no. Those CQ loonies inside the Beltway would never make things that easy.
And with that, I present to you, my (now former) boss's letter of complaint to CQ. I promise my next post will appeal to a more general audience. Eat your heart out, CQ!
From: Matt
Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2007 11:14 AM
To: 'moneyline@cq.com'
Subject: CQ Money Line
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing to express my deep disappointment regarding the recent changes to CQ/Political Money Line.
Starting to charge money is only one small issue. My primary objection is that the overall functionality of the website has declined dramatically since CQ begun running the site. Political Moneyline was by far, hands down the best and most effective site to research political giving. There was no competition.
For whatever reason, the changes you have made have rendered the database almost entirely useless. I and everyone I know have stopped coming to the site altogether. It would be one thing if the former functionallity were simply available for a fee. However, after receiving a trial subscription service I have found there is in fact no difference in functionality. A subscription only makes more totally useless features available.
As an example, the individual donor search is has been reduced to meaningless reams of unhelpful information. This morning I thought I would try one more time and looked up a local donor to see who she was supporting in this cycle’s federal races. I entered her name, (Olsen, Heidi) and on political money line I could have selected any number of cycles to see who she was supporting. The results would have been all Heidi Olsens and would have been a comprehensive list.
Instead, I received 454 reults, starting with Adams, Heidi C and then Arthur, Heidi Mrs. What possible purpose would be served by providing me with this information? I see none. The only possible explanation is that the sole purpose of CQ moneyline is to be a form of “campaign finance porn” and overload the user with useless but extensive lists of political donors of all sorts.
Unfortunately, these changes don’t just affect me. Tray.com was a true outlet for people to understand and see into the campaign finance system. CQ has taken that away and replaced it with a useless piece of garbage.
Shame!
Matt
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