Campaign Finance
Methodology
How these profiles are built.
LegiList campaign finance profiles use official FEC records. Official totals come from FEC summary data. Detail tables are grouped from bulk itemized records and appear only when coverage is strong enough for publication.
At a Glance
LegiList publishes official cycle totals directly from FEC summary records, then adds grouped detail tables when the
underlying itemized record coverage is strong enough to support public display.
Section Sources
| Profile section | Source | Method |
|---|---|---|
| At a Glance | Official FEC candidate summary data | Shown as official cycle totals. |
| Funding Mix | Official FEC candidate summary data | Shown as official receipt-category totals for the selected cycle. |
| Candidate Filings | Official FEC candidate and linkage files | Matched to the lawmaker using the local legislator-to-FEC bridge. |
| Campaign Committees | Official FEC committee and linkage files | Shown when committee coverage for the profile is clean enough to publish. |
| Itemized Receipts by State | FEC bulk itemized individual contributions | Grouped by donor state for the selected cycle. |
| Top PAC and Committee Supporters | FEC bulk committee-to-candidate contribution records | Grouped by donor committee after memo, void, and refund handling. |
| Spending by Purpose | FEC bulk operating expenditures | Grouped by reported disbursement purpose. |
| Top Vendors | FEC bulk operating expenditures | Grouped by payee name and reported location. |
Publication Threshold
Detail tables are published only when LegiList's grouped itemized records reach at least 97% of the
corresponding official FEC total for that profile and cycle. If a table is missing, the profile either did not clear
that threshold or did not have publishable rows for that section.
Cycle Scope
All profile data is cycle-specific. Totals, committees, supporters, receipts, and spending are shown for the selected
two-year federal election cycle only.
Grouping Rules
LegiList groups raw itemized records into readable profile tables. Because of that, table layouts will not always mirror FEC.gov exactly row for row.
- "Itemized Receipts by State" groups itemized individual contributions by donor state. Blank state values are shown as "Unknown."
- "Top PAC and Committee Supporters" groups publicly displayable committee support by donor committee. Same-lawmaker committee transfers and non-public committee types are excluded from this public table.
- "Spending by Purpose" groups disbursements by the committee's reported purpose text. Blank purposes are shown as "Unspecified."
- "Top Vendors" groups payees by name and reported location. If a location field is missing in the FEC source, LegiList shows the available parts only.
Why Differences Can Happen
FEC.gov and LegiList are both using official FEC records, but they do not present the same views in the same way.
- FEC profile totals come from official summary filings.
- LegiList detail tables are grouped from raw itemized bulk records.
- Memo, void, refund, and location-cleanup handling can change how raw rows roll up into a readable table.
- Some sections are intentionally suppressed when source coverage is not strong enough for publication.
Campaign finance profiles on LegiList are built from official FEC records for the selected cycle.