The First Street database is a political intelligence tool offered by CQ Press. The company has taken mountains of data from publishing government and political directories for years and digitized it into an extensive relational database. The database contains more than 660,000 lobbying forms, filed by more than 43,000 lobbyists dating back to 2004. Information on more than 100,000 pieces of legislation dating back to 1993 is used to correlate associations between 240,000 congressional and federal staffers, 33,000 clients of registered lobbying organizations and 18,000 congressional and federal organizations. All the information is fresh with update times ranging from near real-time to weekly.
The key to the database is the clean and efficient user interface. There is a tremendous amount of data in the system that can quickly overwhelm search results. The interface allows users to drill down and find the content you need. Searching can be done from the Dashboard or individual advanced search pages for people, organizations, legislation, places, or issues. You can customize the Dashboard and use it to save your searches, create project folders and setup e-mail alerts.
Simple keyword searches for a congressional member or staffer give you current and historical biographical information, committee assignments, and sponsored legislation. In the advance people search page you are able to search for connections between two names. This powerful search shows you things like two lobbyists who served on the same staff seven years ago. You confirm things you already know, clients often choose lobbyists to lobby members who are their old bosses.
The real power of the database can be found in “Coalition Builder,” a network visualization tool used to help understand the in-depth connections between political organizations, lobbyists, staffers, and members. You can expand the network by clicking on a person to produce personal connections, offices and potential bills. Clicking these links will expand the network further with lines drawn between people, departments, clients, and bills. People, organizations, issues, and legislation data points are color coded to better see the connections. With “Coalition Builder” you begin to see real connections that may have been very hard to detect otherwise. For some great examples see the First Street Research Group Blog.
The service is a one-of-a-kind offering that is extremely valuable for campaigns and issue oriented groups. There are a few things to keep in mind. The database contains federal level information only. There is no information about candidates, lobbyists, or legislation on the state level. If you’ve ever purchased a directory from CQ Press you know they’re not cheap. While the database is not inexpensive, I was surprised how reasonable the pricing is for a campaign or non-profit organization.
For more information contact Chris Austin @ 202-729-1376
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