The folks at MAPLight.org issued a report today titled 'Remote Control,' which shows the geographic origin, down to zip code, of campaign contributions for all members of the U.S. House of Representatives. The most surprising finding? Legislators raised about four out of every five dollars in campaign funds from outside of where their constituents live.

According to the research, members of the House of Representatives raised $700 million in campaign funds from 2005-2007. A whopping $551 million of these funds, or 79%, came from out-of-district. $146 million of these funds, or 21%, came from in-district. The remaining $3 million of campaign funds (0.5%) could not be definitively located as in-district or out-of-district. From the report:

"With out-of-district fundraising at a staggering 80%, the problem is not with a few individual House members. This report provides evidence that our campaign finance system is broken," said Daniel Newman, MAPLight.org's co-founder and executive director. "To win an election, a House candidate has to raise an average of $1.3 million in campaign funds--that's $2,500 every working day for an entire two year term. With such a herculean fundraising effort required, what time and attention do Representatives have left to address the interests of the voters they represent?"

See the full report at MAPLight.org.

A coalition of government transparency groups (which Change Congress is a part of) is asking the Senate to take a step into the modern era by requiring that all campaign finance reports be filed electronically. Currently, these reports are filed on paper requiring massive amounts of information to be digitized and further delaying valuable info from the public's view. The House of Representatives has been filing electronically for years. Whats the holdup, Senators?

S. 223 was originally introduced by Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold over a year and half ago. Since then it's been blocked, stalled, or shut down by opponents like John Ensign (R-NV).

The Sunlight Foundation has put together a simple web page allowing you to see which Senators are supporting the bill, which are opposed, and how many calls each Senate office has received.

You can take a look at the actual bill over at OpenCongress and follow the supporters and opponents (including industry and activist groups) on Maplight.org.

Passing this bill will shine light into the dark corners of governmental process, and it starts with a couple of phone calls you can make. This should be a no-brainer, but, honestly, how often have you watched your government get no-brainers completely wrong?