​Off the Grid: Spotlight - Real Life Vigilante, Nick Rubin

Seventeen-year-old Nick Rubin is our vigilante of the month.  Last year, Rubin created a browser extension called Greenhouse that revolutionized the way we find political campaign finance data.

Greenhouse is a free extension for Chrome, Safari, and Firefox that puts contribution information for every Senator or Representative right on the page.

Once installed, all you have to do is scroll over any politician’s name and a pop-up box will show you a detailed breakdown of campaign donations to that person, including the dollar amount and the top ten industries that the money came from.

Nick's accomplishment is important because it simplified an archaic, confusing, and daunting process for finding campaign finance information that was too complicated for the average American citizen. 

Don't you wish you had been as inspired as Nick when you were sixteen?  It just goes to show you that apathy doesn’t solve anything.  All it takes is one person—in this case a high school sophomore—to make a difference.

We will be featuring this real life vigilante in an upcoming episode of Off the Grid.  In the mean time, you can learn more about Nick Rubin by watching his talk, “Fixing Politics," in the video below or by visiting his website.  And don't forget to download Greenhouse for free here so you can #stayvigilant.

For the Governor's take on why we need campaign finance reform and transparency, check out his video below.