Tracking the Flow of Money Online
By Tania Valdemoro
Getting the right information about the money flowing in and out of politics can be tough if you are unfamiliar with where to turn. Here is where attendees of the Western Knight Center seminar on covering campaign finances were told to look:
Campaign finance reports
The Federal Election Commission is the first place to find out who made federal campaign contributions to politicians and other groups. Federal law requires federal candidates, political parties, political action committees and anyone who gives more than $250 in independent expenditures to report their activities to the FEC.
For FEC reports: http://www.fec.gov/finance_reports.html. For Web page versions of electronically filed reports, go to http://herndon2.sdrdc.com/dcdev. For scanned images of reports: http://herndon1.sdrdc.com/fecimg/index.html. And for raw data compiled into large data files: http://www.fec.gov/finance/newftp1.htm
For more processed or value-added data, visit the Center for Responsive Politics Web site at http://www.opensecrets.org.
Of course, there are exceptions to this rule. Senate candidates and Senate committee members file the same kind of information with the secretary of the Senate. This information then gets passed to the FEC. Expect some delay time.
The Internal Revenue Service Web site has disclosure reports of 527 organizations and nonprofits. What these groups file with the FEC is only a portion of what they file with the IRS. http://www.irs.gov
527 organizations file 8871 forms called “Notice of Status” and 8872 forms that show receipts and expenditures. Nonprofit groups under Section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code file 990 forms with the IRS.
If a 527 organization files at the state level, it doesn’t have to file with the IRS. This rule is meant to avoid duplication, though it might lead one on a wild goose chase.
More nonprofit tax information in PDFs can be found at Guide Star: http://www.guidestar.org
Visit your state’s election office or secretary of state’s office to get campaign contribution information at the state level. Sometimes reports will be available as data sets; other times, it will only be available on paper.
Be wary of state data. In some case, it can be incomplete; in other cases, the data is duplicated, and it shouldn’t be.
Check out “State and Local Government on the Net” at http://www.statelocalgov.net to find official state, county and city government Web sites for all 50 states. From there, you can find a link to the appropriate state election office.
For more processed or value-added state data, visit the Institute for Money in State Politics’ Web site at http://www.followthemoney.org to get election campaign information for the 50 states.
Campaign finance law and enforcement
What is the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (a.k.a. McCain-Feingold)? To find out, visit the FEC’s Web site under Media Guide: Backgrounders for Reporters: http://www.fec.gov or FECWatch, a part of the Center for Responsive Politics, at http://www.fecwatch.org
Want to learn how the FEC has defended the act against lawsuits or about BCRA being upheld in McConnell v. FEC? Then check out: http://www.fecwatch.org/law/court/mcconnell.asp or http://www.cfinst.org/eguide/mcconnellvfec/index.html
Some critics may claim that there is no campaign finance law or enforcement, but the FEC would probably disagree. The agency interprets election laws by adopting “regulations” and issuing “advisory opinions,” or guidance on how the law would apply to planned activities by candidates, donors, PACs and others.
Find FEC regulations at http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_04/11cfrv1_04.html. For the FEC’s proposed rules and public comments and hearings: http://www.fec.gov/register.htm
Get FEC advisory opinions from http://herndon3.sdrdc.com/ao/, or requests for advisory opinions at http://www.fec.gov/aoreq.html.
Want to find out if an individual or company in the past has violated federal election law?
Check out recently closed “matters under review” (MURs) at http://eqs.sfrdc.com/eqs/searchreqs (note that ongoing MURs are confidential.)
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