New website will allow Arizonans to ‘See the Money’

See the Money. It’s a new way to check out campaign donations made to Arizona politicians.

The website is being put together by Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan and her staff. Reagan told KTAR’s “It’s Business Time with Mike Weinstein” you will be able to search for Arizona politicians, like her, on the new site.

“A window will pop open and everyone who has contributed to me, along with the dollar amounts will be listed, nice and neat in a window,” Reagan said.

From there, you can then click on the name of someone who makes a donation, like a lobbyist.

“A window will pop open and you’ll be able to see every person that lobbyist has contributed to,” Reagan said.

You will also be able to see the donations made by any individuals and political action committees. Reagan said there is dark money in campaigns, but the majority of campaign donations are not dark. She said state law requires her office to collect data about campaign donations made to candidates, but her office has struggled in the past to get the word out about those donations.

“We do a terrible job with the data that we already collect in laying it out for people to see,” Reagan said.

That is the reason the Secretary of State’s Office is rolling out this new program. Reagan said the website, which has been in the works for 9 months, takes information that is public record and puts it all together to make it easier for people to find.

“People are going to be able to just go and very easily click and see it all,” Reagan said. “It’s been there, it’s just nobody knows that we have it.”

The new website, seethemoney.com, will officially go live in early May.