Labs

Legislators XML

Basic metadata about every legislator is available as XML. Simply replace the trailing slash at the end of the legislator’s page on Richmond Sunlight with .xml. For instance, Del. Tim Hugo’s XML feed is found at http://www.richmondsunlight.com/­legislator/­tdhugo.xml. At present, legislator XML provides the following, for which sample data for Del. Hugo is included parenthetically:

  • name (Hugo, Tim)
  • Richmond Sunlight ID (tdhugo)
  • district number (40)
  • chamber (house)
  • party (R)
  • bill count (3)
  • sex (male)
  • cash on hand (17193)
  • bills
    • number (HB1009)
    • title (Real estate taxes; assessments, bills, and deferral by localities.)
    • date_introduced (2008-01-08)
    • status (failed committee)
  • bill tags and counts (admission, 1; clifton, 1; college, 3; deer, 1; election law, 1; etc.)
  • committee memberships and positions (Commerce and Labor, member, Finance, member, etc.)

Bills XML

Basic metadata about every bill is available as XML. Simply replace the trailing slash at the end of the bill’s page on Richmond Sunlight with .xml. For instance, the XML for 2008’s HB1 is found at http://www.richmondsunlight.com/­bill/­2008/hb1.xml. At present, bill XML provides the following, for which sample data for HB1 is included parenthetically:

  • number (HB1)
  • title (Disabled veteran; definition thereof.)
  • summary (Redefines the term "disabled veteran" for the purposes of...)
  • full_text (too long to reproduce here)
  • current_chamber (house)
  • status (failed)
  • date_introduced (2007-11-19)
  • patron
    • name (Peace, Chris)
    • id (ckpeace)
    • party (R)

Recommended Bills

Richmond Sunlight figures out your interests as you look at bills on the site. View the bills recommended for you and find out what legislation you’re missing out on.

Vote CSV

Each legislator’s voting record is available, by year, as a CSV file. (No XML yet.) That’s found by appending votes/yyyy/csv/ to the legislator’s page on Richmond Sunlight. For instance, Sen. Patsy Ticer’s CSV voting data for 2008 is found at http://www.richmondsunlight.com/legislator/psticer/votes/2008/csv/. Legislator voting CSV data provides the following, for which sample data for Sen. Ticer is included parenthetically:

  • bill number (SB115)
  • bill title (Traffic lights; creates Class 1 misdemeanor for running red light.)
  • vote (Y)
  • outcome (pass)
  • committee (Transportation)
  • date (2008-01-10)

This data is updated nightly, at 2:15am. The legislature, in turn, provides Richmond Sunlight with voting data at 2:00am each day; we’re not holding out on you.