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Burn The Playbook

"The column DC reads and hopes you don’t."
All burns original · Every name sourced · Every comfortable version killed
Beat · Donor ↔ Vote

$3,500
Disclosure.

A donor map and a vote map are the same map. We publish both, side by side, with the disclosure timestamp in between.

$3,500Wexner donation amount
2Receipts published
2 / 3Sourcing rule

The cases.

R-2026-013
April 27, 2026

$3,500 From Wexner · Vote to Block Epstein Files Two Months Later

A campaign donation. A floor vote. Two months apart. The disclosure was filed on the day of the vote.

FEC Schedule A · House Roll Call · Disclosure timestamp 3 of 3
Open the receipt →
R-2026-002
March 15, 2026

The Most Bought Man in Michigan

A donor map and a vote map are the same map.

FEC contributions · State legislature roll calls · Industry overlap 2 of 3
Open the receipt →

How we run this beat.

  1. FEC Schedule A ingestion. Every itemized contribution of $200 or more is pulled from FEC Schedule A filings within 24 hours of publication and indexed against the recipient's committee assignments and floor vote calendar.
  2. Vote overlay. Each donation is cross-referenced to the member's floor votes, committee markups, and co-sponsorship activity within ±90 days of the contribution date.
  3. Disclosure timestamp. We record the exact date the donation was disclosed — not when it was made. The gap between donation date, vote date, and disclosure date is the story.
  4. Right of reply. Every named member is offered a 72-hour window to respond on the record. Their reply prints in full at /right-of-reply.
  5. Publication. Receipt prints with the underlying FEC Schedule A filing, the floor vote record, and the disclosure timestamp side by side.