Methodology

How the figures on this site are produced, and what they do and do not mean

What a tracked figure is

Every dollar amount on this site is labeled by what it measures. A figure marked tracked is the sum of the itemized filings that have been ingested into this database for that entity, deduplicated for amended filings. Coverage varies by entity and by cycle, so a tracked total is a floor, not a full-cycle figure, and it will differ from totals published by the FEC or OpenSecrets. Where an official total is available it is shown alongside the tracked figure as a cross-reference.

Direct contributions, independent expenditures, and lobbying client spend are counted separately and are never added together into a single unlabeled number.

Detailed notes

• Chain attribution explains how money that passes through more than one PAC is apportioned from donor to candidate, and the difference between a modeled estimate and a documented floor.
• Policy events and spending explains how political spending is scoped to a specific rulemaking, vote, or enforcement action, and the limits of that method.
• Data sources lists every source the ingestion pipelines draw on, with the terms and attribution each requires.

Sources and citations

Every relationship in the database carries either a link to the transactional record it was drawn from or an explicit editorial inference tag. Wikipedia is not used as a source. Editorial descriptions cite filings, government records, or established financial and investigative press.

Corrections

If a figure, relationship, or description on this site is wrong, write to kristofer@anticorruptionaction.org with the page address and, where possible, a link to the primary record. Corrections are made in the database rather than in the page text, so the fix appears everywhere the record is shown.