Want to know if a celebrity is playing both sides of the fence? Whether that new guy you’re seeing is actually a Republican or just dresses like one? If your boss maxed out at that fundraiser or got comped? Whether your neighbor’s political involvement stops at that hideous lawn sign?

Hell, yes!

FundRace gives you the technology to do what politicians and journalists have been doing for years: find out where the money’s coming from, see who it’s going to, and solve the mystery of why that crazy ex-roommate of yours is now the Ambassador to Turks and Caicos.

Using public records filed with the FEC of all contributions greater than $200, FundRace calculates the who, where, and how much of hard/soft cash going to political parties/candidates/PACs. I’m all agog at the technological marvels that produce such transparency.

Nosing around a bit, I came up with:

Jhumpa Lahiri, Writer, gave $250 to the DNC
Kalpen Modi, Actor, gave $1,395 to Barack Obama
Atul Gawande, Surgeon, gave $250 to John Kerry
Aziz Ansari, Producer/Actor, gave $1,150 to Barack Obama
Vikram Pandit, (current CEO at Citigroup, then COO at Morgan Stanley), gave $2,000 to George W. Bush

Searching by last name only generates results like this:
$407,448 was given by people who identified their last name as “Singh”
$98,952 from 63 people to Republicans
$308,496 from 185 people to Democrats

$330,376 was given by people who identified their last name as “Gupta”
$42,850 from 28 people to Republicans
$287,526 from 96 people to Democrats

Rather amusingly, $4,945 was given by people who identified their last name as “Jindal”
$0 to Republicans
$4,945 from 5 people to Democrats

In my entirely unscientific survey, all the desi names generated more Democratic donors than Republican. Interesting since I thought the balance, based on political punditry and SM commenters, would tilt towards the GOP. Also found loads of PAC contributors, especially to energy/engineering/science based PACs like the General Atomics Political Action Committee. Time to see how that moron in your lab got all that grant money!

You can find relatives, neighbours, friends, co-workers, celebrities…anyone who donated more than $200, really. The map pinpoints addresses with rather startling accuracy. You can also search by occupation:

$86,577 was given by people who identified their occupation as “Mathematician”
$13,740 from 18 people to Republicans
$72,837 from 98 people to Democrats

I searched for donations from Astronauts, but, sadly, got no results. Oh, Abhi…