diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8f0d6c3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+opensecrets
diff --git a/dump_csv.rb b/dump_csv.rb
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..6bc546e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dump_csv.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env ruby
+# dump csv file contents
+
+require 'csv'
+require 'optparse'
+
+# basic commandline parsing
+options = {}
+
+parser = OptionParser.new do |parser|
+	parser.banner = "Usage: dump_csv.rb [options]" 
+	parser.on("-c", "--column INT", "The column number to dump.") do |column|
+		options[:column] = column
+	end
+	parser.on("-f", "--filename NAME", "The CSV filename to use.") do |filename|
+		options[:filename] = filename
+	end
+end
+
+parser.parse!
+
+
+col_data = []
+CSV.foreach(options[:filename]) {|col| col_data << col[options[:column].to_i]}
+
+puts col_data