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For politicians, decrying money’s influence in politics is almost always a safe bet. Much of Donald Trump’s and Bernie Sanders’ appeal in last year’s presidential election came from their attacks on money in Washington, D.C., with Trump promising to “drain the swamp” when elected. Overwhelming majorities consistently affirm to pollsters a belief that money has a corrupting effect on the U.S. government. But few have been able to precisely quantify that corrupting effect and measure how much money it takes to move congressional votes. Until now.

Because there are so many factors and variables influencing political decisions, researchers have found it difficult to prove causation between campaign money and congressional votes. But in a new study, researchers led by Thomas Ferguson believe they found a group of public officials that illustrates money’s impact: Democrats who changed their mind about Dodd-Frank.

Ferguson and his team assert that they were able to document exactly how the finance industry, which lobbied heavily to undue parts of the historic 2010 law, […]