Citizen Journalists at the SuperDelegate Transparency Project Produce Only Fully Sourced, Detailed Reporting on SuperDelegates

March 5, 2008

Contact: Gabriela Schneider 202-742-1520 ext 236

WASHINGTON, DC - The group of citizen journalists, bloggers and activists convened at the SuperDelegate Transparency Project have produced the only reporting on SuperDelegate commitments in the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination that is fully broken down by delegate, by state, congressional district and has full and transparent sourcing. No major news organization provides such detail or provides their sources.

The SuperDelegate Transparency Project (STP) at Congresspedia.org is the only citizen-driven, grassroots effort to bring transparency to the SuperDelegate process. While major news organizations and political Web sites provide unsourced and conflicting delegate and SuperDelegate counts, STP has consistently provided delegate-by-delegate breakdowns of endorsements, all with fully transparent sourcing. The project, which counts more than 400 volunteers, is dedicated to bringing greater transparency to the Democratic nomination process.

"Crowdsourcing this project was the only way to tackle such a massive research task," said Congresspedia Managing Editor Conor Kenny. "Going fully transparent with our sources was the only way to maintain credibility on such a controversial topic and, really, seemed only appropriate in light of the inscrutability of the whole SuperDelegate process. This is a testament to the amazing power of citizen journalism when it's done right."

Citizen journalists at STP track the primary and caucus results-congressional district by congressional district-for states that have held their races. The project then tracks how SuperDelegates' endorsements relate to the preferences of rank-and-file voters in those districts and states. STP currently lists 794 Democratic officials as SuperDelegates.

Now, the STP also provides profiles of and interviews with SuperDelegates, which were organized by the HuffPost's OffTheBus project.

"We couldn't be happier with the way OffTheBus met the challenge of working on the project, whose size and scope made it difficult for mainstream media to handle. The SuperDelegate Transparency Project's focus on the central question, 'Who are the SuperDelegates?' matches perfectly with OffTheBus's mission," said OffTheBus Director Amanda Michel. "As soon as we signed on hundreds of our members, and a new corps of citizen journalists, stepped forward and produced hundreds of profiles and helped generate more than a dozen stories."

The STP is a combined effort of DemConWatch, LiteraryOutpost, OpenLeft, HuffPost's OffTheBus and Congresspedia—a project of the Sunlight Foundation and the Center for Media and Democracy. The idea for the project came from Florida-based technology consultant, Mark Myers, who is not a registered Democrat and did not vote in the primary.

The Sunlight Foundation supports, develops and deploys new Internet technologies to make information about Congress and the federal government more accessible to the American people. Through its projects and grant-making, Sunlight serves as a catalyst to create greater political transparency and to foster more openness and accountability in government.

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