Following the money

The Obama administration has been making a big push in the last few days to tout the effects of the massive economic stimulus package. So, I’ve been poking around the very impressive recovery.gov site, specifically the section for Minnesota.

A few observations:

stimulus_cong_districts.jpg

The top districts receiving cash — 4th, 5th, 8th, 1st, and 7th — are the congressional seats held by DFLers. The 3rd, 6th, and 2nd are Republican seats in Minnesota.

On a page of all Minnesota congressional districts, the 27th, 9th, 57th, 12th, 14th, 22nd, 11th, 42nd, 20th and 13th districts are listed as receiving $7.5 million, creating or saving 50.3 jobs (that’s $150,000 each).

Oh, and there is no 27th, 9th, 57th, 12th, 14th, 22nd, 11th, 42nd, 20th, or 13th districts in Minnesota.

A map of the state on the page shows where stimulus funds have been allocated:

stimulus_map_1.jpg

But none of the dots are linked anywhere and a slider to zoom only makes big dots.

$18 million is being spent to redesign the site.