Over $4 billion is spent on political lobbying in the US every year. The Lobbying Disclosure Act requires lobbyists to report their activity, giving us access to data including the companies lobbying, what they are lobbying for, and how much they are paying. Through the LobbyView datasets, we will use large language models to predict whether lobbying reports support or oppose specific bills. We will also develop methodology on ideologically scaling lobbyists and registrants to categorize them as conservative or liberal. Additionally, we will enhance donation data by tracing passthrough donations to improve data accuracy over existing databases. By integrating lobbying and donation data, we aim to uncover significant political activities of companies.

I am participating in SuperUROP to develop rigorous research skills in the field of political science using my background in computer science, data science, and economics. I am excited to systematically analyze how money in politics influences companies and ultimately produce meaningful results that help us understand and quantify the effects of political lobbying in the US.