It is easy to find out where people holding or seeking federal office raise their campaign dollars. Project Vote Smart (www.vote-smart.org) provides that information and much more on all incumbents and contenders. The site lists PAC money, aggregates it by industry or interest groups, etc. And if you don’t know who your national or state elected officials are, just type in your ZIP+4 and the site will tell you. It will even look up your +4 numbers at a click of the mouse.

Astonishingly, it is also easy to find out which individuals as well as PACs are making campaign contributions of $200 or more. At www.opensecrets.org you can look up them up by name or by ZIP code. If you type in a ZIP, you’ll get an alphabetical listing of everyone in that ZIP who is listed in recent Federal Election Commission reports, all their donations above $200, and to which incumbents or candidates they gave. The site allows you to work the other way as well, back from the recipient to the contributors