tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post3139165085542991550..comments2023-10-16T07:13:12.123-05:00Comments on A plain blog about politics: Question Day 1: SpendingJonathan Bernsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15931039630306253241noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-55831199080047656982012-02-17T11:28:36.705-06:002012-02-17T11:28:36.705-06:00I screwed up and double-posted this, and I'm t...I screwed up and double-posted this, and I'm taking the other version down, but didn't want to lose a comment by Colby:<br /><br />"As an addendum, in my experience, the rival campaigns plow through this info pretty thoroughly, always looking for a scandal, a violation, a few kernals to build a narrative on, etc. But this information ends up being treated as a lawyer's work product- used only to the extent that it helps the campaign win, and discarded pretty quickly after its over."Jonathan Bernsteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15931039630306253241noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-20485343141548316172012-02-17T11:28:09.245-06:002012-02-17T11:28:09.245-06:00This doesn't completely answer what I think Ch...This doesn't completely answer what I think Charlie is asking, but OpenSecrets cleans up and summarizes FEC data on this...for example:<br />http://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/expenditures.php<br /><br />And they make their data candidate/PAC level data available here:<br />http://www.opensecrets.org/resources/create/data.phpTim LaPiranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-46076955870055656432012-02-17T10:44:10.112-06:002012-02-17T10:44:10.112-06:00Misread this a bit - CMAG tracks all media spendin...Misread this a bit - CMAG tracks all media spending, but not other spending.Alexnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-54791238681437338452012-02-17T10:42:40.921-06:002012-02-17T10:42:40.921-06:00And CMAG (http://kantarmediana.com/cmag) is a non-...And CMAG (http://kantarmediana.com/cmag) is a non-partisan, for-profit company dedicated entirely to this.Alexnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-22366250650053476922012-02-17T10:39:22.085-06:002012-02-17T10:39:22.085-06:00For people interested in digging deep into FEC dat...For people interested in digging deep into FEC data: The committees file a Form3 at various time throughout the year, and you'll want to look at the Schedule-B lines for spending data. One schedule-b is filed for each itemized expenditure. There are various sub-lines but most committees file actual spending on line 23; contributions to other committees, contribution refunds, interest accrued, and others will have different line numbers. Here's a list of all Schedule-b line 23 spending for the year end report filed by Obama For America. <br /><br />http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/dcdev/forms/C00431445/763233/sb/23<br /><br />There are several fields in a SB/23 that could be interesting: Expenditure Purpose Description, Category Code, Memo Code, Memo Description / Text. The FEC is somewhat lenient on how committees report and what fields they populate, so for non-memo expenditures you'll usually get a free-form text description and that's it. There is no standardization of these descriptions, but committees using the same filing software (NGP, Aristotle) may have similar descriptions (Catering/Facilities, Telemarketing, etc) but all committees are free to change the defaults at will. <br /><br />For itemized House and Senate spending it can sometimes be easier to use the new FEC candidate disbursement data set (http://www.fec.gov/data/CandidateDisbursement.do?format=html). <br />-jjhJason Holthttp://offensivepolitics.net/noreply@blogger.com