About HippoCricket
HippoCricket is a nonpartisan record that checks whether politicians' votes match what they've said, using official public roll-call votes, with donor money shown alongside. It's not a news source.
HippoCricket is a play on hypocrite. We label whether they held, explained, or went silent — and we say so plainly.
The name is a joke. The record isn’t.
“Changing your mind isn’t the sin. The sin is changing it quietly.”
Fat Hippo — the record didn’t move. Hippo — changed and said why. HippoCricket — changed, and no explanation found. That’s the red one.
Who’s behind this
I’m Smith. That’s my real last name. I’m not trying to gain notoriety from this. I’m a small business owner. I wake up at five in the morning, sometimes four thirty, and I work until five thirty, six at night. I live a pretty normal life.
I didn’t build this to get famous, and nobody is buying a pond. I will not take money to change a pond. I’m not going to be bought.
I grew up in a time where you didn’t even know if your parents were Democrat or Republican. We just knew the world was a better place. There’s a lot of distrust now, and I’m ready to see the US start correcting.
There are going to be far-right wingers. There are going to be far-left wingers. That’s okay. Those people have just as much voting power as anyone else. This country was built on both sides. We lost that somewhere, and I’m trying to get it back.
We might as well get the right people in there regardless of which side they are on. Because the sides don’t matter. A good person matters. A right person matters. Not a theatric person. Just the right person. Let’s get them in from the bottom up. That’s what this is about.
— Smith
HippoCricket is an independent reading of the public record. Not a government site, not an accusation of crime. No accounts. Positions without a source are not used.
The file
We label whether they stuck, explained, or went silent. Changing your mind is allowed. Silence isn’t.
Every position needs a source. No source, no pond. The pond comes from the data. Empty data is a Thin Hippo, not a clean file.
A PAC is counted when it gave at least $1,000 to Democrats and at least $1,000 to Republicans. FEC 2024–2026 filings. Money never moves the pond.
Wrong file? file@hippo-cricket.com with a source. No source, no change.
Non-partisan
The same labels apply to every politician, every party, every issue.
Source-cited
Every position links to a public source. We never invent positions.
Computable
The pond comes from the record, not an editor. Add a source and the pond updates.
Photos
Photos are pulled from public sources and may be updated if a better one is available.
Check the person
Not all Democrats are crazy. Not all Republicans are crazy. A straight-ticket vote can hide the individual record. Check the person, not only the party letter.
Read the record. Follow the money. Decide for yourself.
Why your vote matters
Politics feels confusing on purpose.
In 2024, 156.8 million ballots were counted out of 243.8 million eligible voters.
That’s 64 percent. University of Florida Election Lab, March 2026.
If your vote didn’t matter, billionaires and big donors wouldn’t spend hundreds of millions trying to collect it.
They wouldn’t bother.
Your vote counts.
Money just tries to buy it.
Things that aren’t normal
We don’t judge your beliefs, or theirs. We show whether they explain when they change. None of these prove guilt. All of them mean: look closer.
1. Sudden money
A nobody with tens of millions isn’t a grassroots campaign. That’s a bet. Ask who wrote the checks and what they need back. We’re not telling you the answer. Go look.
2. Same donor, both teams
If the same PAC or donor funds Republicans and Democrats, they didn’t pick a side. If a donor writes both sides, they show up here. We show the amount. It does not change the pond.
Why that’s a problem: If a donor only needs one party, they’re fighting over policy. “Everybody takes it” is not a defense. It’s the tell. You’re not looking at a team. You’re looking at a customer.
3. The check is not the pond
A new donor does not move the pond. The pond moves when the votes move and no why is on the file. We show the money. It does not change the pond.
4. Out-of-town cash
A local race flooded from another city isn’t “the people have spoken.” It’s an import. Ask why outsiders care this much about your county.
5. Patriotic names, no people
“Americans for Prosperity and Freedom” with a PO box is not a neighbor. It’s a pass-through. Click until you hit a human.
6. The HippoCricket
They flipped and won’t say why. That’s not “complicated.” That’s a tell. The badge is there so silence shows.
7. They vote on it, then they trade it
A vote Monday and a stock trade Friday isn’t proof of a crime. It’s a reason to open the filing.
How to challenge a pond
A public-record court with no clerk’s window is a blog. That’s why the form exists. Send the source. The pond recomputes from the data. A sourced explanation can move HippoCricket → Hippo. It cannot rewrite history into Fat Hippo. Rules live on the methodology page. Or send the source to file@hippo-cricket.com.
A sourced correction is reviewed within 7 days. No source, no change.
Challenge this record
This is a real filing. No source, no change.
Submissions are reviewed before they appear.
We’ll reply from file@hippo-cricket.com.