Derek Willis
@dwillis
I teach data journalism at the University of Maryland, run OpenElections. Fan of WBB & test cricket. Posting obscure things about campaign finance, Congress & elections.
Been trying out some new open-weight OCR-focused LLMs and found a 4b param model that nails pages like this, including the "vertical" headers. OCR isn't totally solved, but we're getting closer to a scenario where you can get 2 of these 3, one of which is always accurate: cheap fast accurate
Might be a sign of flagging donations overall; the joint fundraising agreement makes it clear that Vance's committee should get something eventually, if donors give enough.
Graphic design is my passion (along with accurate geography): www.fox5dc.com/news/cyclosp...
PA GOP Gov. candidate Stacy Garrity's latest campaign email has a sender name of "Data Center Awareness" and while not expressing opposition to them, touts a recent listening tour on the topic. Doesn't even have a "donate" button!
I applaud Fifth Third Bank’s security protocols, with one exception: I don’t have an account there.
Very niche post, but really enjoyed reading “Chesapeake Requiem” about Tangier Island, which features “Ooker” Estridge, the island’s longtime mayor. Who I saw today at the docks in Crisfield, Md., alongside the boat to Tangier:
If you were wanting to play my Hoops WBB game but didn't want to download and run some files to do it, there's a web version (at least for now): hoops-game.fly.dev
"Did you make that image for the anti-communist club fundraising email?" "Sure did, boss, and made sure to use red, too!"
Writing headlines for the web is a mostly thankless task, but even so, this is quite the attempt at "balance" by the WashPost:
Honestly, might be starting to prefer AI writing over this MadLib by, well, mad libs.
Added a feature to my collection of U.S. House office expense data: you can preview and filter any CSV file in the browser: thescoop.org/house-expend... Data is now through Q1 2026.
One of my favorite AI-generated campaign websites so far is for Socorro Keenan, a Republican running for Secretary of State in Nevada. Her intro video is explicitly anti-AI, and yet the video is generated using AI. www.keenanfornvsos.com
Based on this fundraising email you'd think that Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., was not only in a tossup race but had just been filmed pouring ketchup on a baby before shoving it into an alligator pen:
Because when I strip everything else away, changing fonts is the only answer for Mike Rogers, a Republican running for the Senate in Michigan.
As I sign up for more political fundraising emails, I'm gonna start surfacing the most AI-generated candidate website designs I'm finding. Here's one for Virginia McIntyre, a NY congressional hopeful:
Michigan Democratic Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet has missed 15 House votes since June 4. thescoop.org/present/
Forget packing the court, apparently Democrats are gonna pack the alphabet, according to this fundraising email from California congressional candidate Joe Males:
When I was a college student at Pitt, I used to play this text-based PC game called Hoops. You could coach college basketball teams against the computer or a friend. I missed that game, so I recreated it, but for women's college basketball. Here's the story of that: thescoop.org/archives/202...
There's a story in GOP candidates' usage of intelligence/security lingo in fundraising emails: