python-sunlightapi 0.5.0

Libraries for interacting with the Sunlight Labs API

Python library for interacting with the Sunlight Labs API.

The Sunlight Labs API provides basic legislator information, district lookups, and experimental information on lobbyists. (http://services.sunlightlabs.com/api/)

python-sunlightapi is a project of Sunlight Labs (c) 2008. Written by James Turk <[e-mail]>.

All code is under a BSD-style license, see LICENSE for details.

Homepage: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/python-sunlightapi/

Source: http://github.com/sunlightlabs/python-sunlightapi/

Requirements

python >= 2.4

simplejson >= 1.8 (not required with python 2.6, will use built in json module)

Installation

To install run

python setup.py install

which will install the bindings into python’s site-packages directory.

Usage

To initialize the api, all that is required is for it to be imported and for an API key to be defined.

(If you do not have an API key visit http://services.sunlightlabs.com/api/ to register for one.)

Import sunlight from sunlightapi:

>>> from sunlightapi import sunlight, SunlightApiError

And set your API key:

>>> sunlight.apikey = 'sunlight-api-key'

legislators methods

The legislators namespace is comprised of several functions:

• legislators.get - get a single legislator

• legislators.getList - get zero or more legislators

• legislators.search - fuzzy search for legislators by name

• legislators.allForZip - get all legislators representing a zipcode

get and getList

legislators.get and legislators.getList both take any number of parameters and return all legislators that match the provided criteria. These parameters are also the ones returned in each legislator object.

The available parameters are:

• title

• firstname

• middlename

• lastname

• name_suffix

• nickname

• party

• state

• district

• in_office

• gender

• birthdate

• phone

• fax

• website

• webform

• email

• congress_office

• bioguide_id

• votesmart_id

• fec_id

• govtrack_id

• crp_id

• eventful_id

• congresspedia_url

• twitter_id

• official_rss

• youtube_url

To get the representative that represents NC-4:

>>> print sunlight.legislators.get(state='NC', district='4')
Rep. David Price (D-NC)

legislators.getList works much the same way, but returns a list. It is possible to do a more complex query, for instance “all legislators from New York that are Republicans”:

>>> for leg in sunlight.legislators.getList(state='NY', party='R'):
...     print leg
Rep. Pete King (R-NY)
Rep. Christopher Lee (R-NY)

It is preferred that you do not call getList without parameters as it will pull down all legislators, if you need to do this feel free to grab the provided dump of the API data available at http://services.sunlightlabs.com/api/

search

legislators.search allows you to query the database with a less than perfect representation of a legislator’s name.

The search is tolerant of use of nicknames, lastname-firstname juxtaposition, initials and minor misspellings. The return is a set of results that include legislator records as well as certainity scores between 0 and 1 (where 1 is most certain).

Search takes two optional parameters

threshold

the minimum score you want to return, the default is 0.8 and you should rarely go lower than 0.7.

all_legislators

if True will search legislators in the API that are no longer in office (default is False)

An example usage of search is as follows:

>>> for r in sunlight.legislators.search('Diane Finestine'):
...     print r
0.92125 Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

It is also possible to get multiple results:

>>> for r in sunlight.legislators.search('Frank'):
...     print r
1.0 Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)
0.972222222222 Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ)
0.952380952381 Sen. Al Franken (D-MN)

allForZip

legislators.allForZip retrieves all legislators that represent a given zipcode.

This typically means two senators and one (or more) representatives.

To get all legislators that represent the 27511 zipcode:

>>> for legislator in sunlight.legislators.allForZip(27511):
...     print legislator
Rep. David Price (D-NC)
Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC)
Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC)
Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC)

districts methods

The districts namespace is comprised of several functions:

• districts.getDistrictsFromZip

• districts.getZipsFromDistrict

• districts.getDistrictFromLatLong

getDistrictsFromZip

districts.getDistrictsFromZip fetches all districts that overlap a given zipcode.

To get all districts that overlap 14623:

>>> for district in sunlight.districts.getDistrictsFromZip(14623):
...     print district
NY-29
NY-28

getZipsFromDistrict

districts.getZipsFromDistrict fetches all zips that fall within a district.

To get all zipcodes in the NY-29th:

>>> sunlight.districts.getZipsFromDistrict('NY', 29)
[u'14925', u'14905', u'14904', u'14903', u'14902', u'14901', u'14898', u'14897', u'14895', u'14894', u'14893', u'14892', u'14891', u'14889', u'14887', u'14886', u'14885', u'14884', u'14883', u'14880', u'14879', u'14878', u'14877', u'14876', u'14874', u'14873', u'14872', u'14871', u'14870', u'14869', u'14867', u'14865', u'14864', u'14863', u'14861', u'14859', u'14858', u'14857', u'14856', u'14855', u'14846', u'14845', u'14843', u'14842', u'14841', u'14840', u'14839', u'14838', u'14837', u'14836', u'14831', u'14830', u'14827', u'14826', u'14825', u'14824', u'14823', u'14822', u'14821', u'14820', u'14819', u'14818', u'14816', u'14815', u'14814', u'14813', u'14812', u'14810', u'14809', u'14808', u'14807', u'14806', u'14805', u'14804', u'14803', u'14802', u'14801', u'14788', u'14786', u'14783', u'14779', u'14778', u'14777', u'14774', u'14772', u'14770', u'14766', u'14760', u'14755', u'14754', u'14753', u'14751', u'14748', u'14747', u'14745', u'14744', u'14743', u'14741', u'14739', u'14738', u'14737', u'14735', u'14731', u'14730', u'14729', u'14727', u'14726', u'14721', u'14719', u'14717', u'14715', u'14714', u'14711', u'14709', u'14708', u'14707', u'14706', u'14625', u'14624', u'14623', u'14620', u'14618', u'14610', u'14606', u'14586', u'14585', u'14572', u'14564', u'14561', u'14560', u'14559', u'14548', u'14547', u'14546', u'14544', u'14543', u'14536', u'14534', u'14532', u'14529', u'14527', u'14526', u'14522', u'14518', u'14514', u'14513', u'14512', u'14507', u'14506', u'14504', u'14502', u'14489', u'14487', u'14485', u'14478', u'14475', u'14472', u'14471', u'14469', u'14467', u'14466', u'14463', u'14461', u'14456', u'14453', u'14450', u'14445', u'14443', u'14441', u'14437', u'14432', u'14428', u'14425', u'14424', u'14418', u'14415', u'14414', u'14173', u'14171', u'14168', u'14141', u'14138', u'14133', u'14129', u'14101', u'14081', u'14070', u'14065', u'14060', u'14042', u'14041', u'14030', u'14029', u'14024', u'14009']

getDistrictFromLatLong

districts.getDistrictFromLatLong finds the district that a given lat-long coordinate pair falls within.

To find out what district 61.13 N, 149.54 W falls within:

>>> print sunlight.districts.getDistrictFromLatLong(61.13, 149.54)
AK-0

This point is in fact in Anchorage, Alaska, so this is correct.

committee methods

The committee namespace contains:

• committee.getList

• committee.get

• committee.allForMember

getList

committee.getList gets all committees for a given chamber (House, Senate, or Joint).

To see all joint committees for the current congress:

>>> for c in sunlight.committees.getList('Joint'):
...     print c
Joint Economic Committee
Joint Committee on Printing
Joint Committee on Taxation
Joint Committee on the Library

get

committee.get gets full details for a given committee, including membership and subcommittees.

Example of getting details for a committee:

>>> com = sunlight.committees.get('HSAG')
>>> print com.name
House Committee on Agriculture
>>> for sc in com.subcommittees:
...     print sc
Subcommittee on  Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research
Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, Nutrition and Forestry
Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management
Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture
Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry
Subcommittee on Rural Development, Biotechnology, Specialty Crops, and Foreign Agriculture
>>> for m in com.members:
...     print m
Rep. Joe Baca (D-CA)
Rep. John Boccieri (D-OH)
Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-IA)
Rep. Bobby Bright (D-AL)
Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-CA)
Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
Rep. Travis Childers (D-MS)
Rep. Mike Conaway (R-TX)
Rep. Jim Costa (D-CA)
Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX)
Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA)
Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D-IN)
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE)
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)
Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO)
Rep. Debbie Halvorson (D-IL)
Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD)
Rep. Tim Holden (D-PA)
Rep. Tim Johnson (R-IL)
Rep. Steven Kagen (D-WI)
Rep. Steve King (R-IA)
Rep. Larry Kissell (D-NC)
Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-MD)
Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH)
Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK)
Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO)
Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)
Rep. Betsy Markey (D-CO)
Rep. Jim Marshall (D-GA)
Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY)
Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC)
Rep. Walt Minnick (D-ID)
Rep. Jerry Moran (R-KS)
Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX)
Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN)
Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-ND)
Rep. Phil Roe (R-TN)
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL)
Rep. Mark Schauer (D-MI)
Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH)
Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-OR)
Rep. David Scott (D-GA)
Rep. Adrian Smith (R-NE)
Rep. G.T. Thompson (R-PA)
Rep. Tim Walz (D-MN)

allForLegislator

All for legislator shows all of a legislator’s committee and subcommittee memberships.

note that the subcommittees included are only the subcommittees that the member has a seat on

Showing all of a legislators committees and subcommittees:

>>> for com in sunlight.committees.allForLegislator('S000148'):
...    print com
...    for sc in com.subcommittees:
...        print '  ',sc
Senate Committee on Rules and Administration
Senate Committee on Finance
   Subcommittee on International Trade and Global Competitiveness
   Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions and Family Policy
   Subcommittee on Taxation, IRS Oversight, and Long-term Growth
Joint Committee on the Library
Joint Economic Committee
Senate Commmittee on the Judiciary
   Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts
   Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights
   Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs
   Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security
   Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security
Joint Committee on Printing
Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
   Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance, and Investment
   Subcommittee on Financial Institutions
   Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development

Deprecated Methods

As of the 0.5 release of this library all lobbyists and wordlist namespace methods are deprecated pending removal in a future version. These methods are no longer supported by the Sunlight Labs API.

See http://sunlightlabs.com/blog/2009/sunlight-labs-api-one-year-later/ for further details.