FEC Candidate Research: Reading a Federal Candidate's Filings

What FEC filings cover

FEC candidate research is the finance pass inside opposition research for a federal candidate. House, Senate, and presidential campaigns report to the Federal Election Commission. The FEC's filing-reports page says that after registration, authorized committees file regularly, and those reports are published in the campaign finance data section of the site: https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/filing-reports/.

The public catalog of those reports is https://www.fec.gov/data/. Researchers use it to find a committee and open a report. This guide does not rank candidates and does not repeat any total from that catalog. A figure in a memo comes from the report that was opened, with the date it was opened.

A state or local candidate may never appear in an FEC report. Their money, if it is disclosed, is in a state or local system. The quarterly-reports page describes House and Senate committees on Form 3 and presidential committees on Form 3P. It does not describe a state legislative committee or a city council committee. When the office is state or local, leave the FEC section empty or write that no federal report was found, and cite the state or local disclosure instead.

The wider map of record types, including votes, disclosures, and court records that are not FEC filings, is opposition research sources.

Finding a candidate's committees

Start with the committee identifier on the filing, not with a name search alone. Candidates can share a name. The report identifies the committee, the treasurer, and the office the statement of candidacy names. Match those fields to the person in the file before a receipt total moves into a sentence.

A principal campaign committee and a joint fundraising committee are different filers. Other committees in the same catalog stay on their own lines. Cite the committee the sentence is about. A report from a different committee does not get added into the candidate's receipt total.

The FEC's amendment page says a Statement of Organization (Form 1) is updated when the committee reports a new treasurer, a new joint fundraising committee, an address change, or a depository change, and that electronic filers have 10 days for those changes. A Statement of Candidacy (Form 2) is updated within 10 days when the office, state, district, or party changes, or when the candidate authorizes another committee, and Form 1 has to reflect that authorization. Those clocks are the filing rule on https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/filing-amendments/. A research file still cites the form that was opened, and it checks whether a later form changed the treasurer or the authorized committee before it describes "the" committee in the present tense.

Reading receipts and disbursements

House and Senate candidate committees report receipts and disbursements quarterly on Form 3. Presidential committees report on Form 3P, quarterly or monthly. The FEC states which presidential committees file monthly on the quarterly-reports page: https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/filing-reports/quarterly-reports/. Use that page for the calendar. This guide does not copy a deadline that will go stale, and it does not restate a dollar threshold from memory.

A sentence about receipts uses the receipt lines. A sentence about spending uses the disbursement lines. A sentence about debts uses the debt lines. Mixing those lines produces a total the report does not print. A cycle-to-date figure is the cycle figure the report prints. It is a different number from the period total. Cite the column the sentence actually uses.

Itemized contributions show the disclosed donor, the date, and the amount on that line, along with employer and occupation when the form asks for them. Grouping those lines can show concentration in the report. The grouping supports a sentence about the filings. An employer name on a disclosure line is the employer the filing reports.

For a national campaign, the presidential pass on the same reports is presidential race research on FEC filings for national campaigns. Use that guide when the office is president. Use this one for the shared reading rules across federal offices.

Amendments and reporting periods

The FEC tells committees to amend when an earlier report was erroneous or when required transaction information arrived late. Electronic filers resubmit the entire report and check the amended box. If cash on hand or cycle-to-date figures change, subsequent reports must also be amended. That instruction is on the amendments page linked above.

Research practice follows the document in hand. Cite the report that was opened. A later amendment is a new sentence about the same period. It does not silently replace the words of the earlier sentence, and the two reports are not added together. Before a number is published, check whether a later amendment is on file for that period.

Reporting periods stay attached to the report. A quarterly Form 3 covers the quarter that form names. Comparing two candidates requires the same period and the same kind of line. A period total next to another committee's cycle-to-date figure is a comparison the filings did not make.

Turning filings into sourced claims

A sourced claim names the committee, the form, the period, and the date the report was opened, and it stays inside the line it cites. How OppIntell sources each claim records a source URL, a source type, and a citation validation status. The status asks whether the cited document still exists at that URL and still contains the cited language. An FEC filing is one of the named source types. A claim that fails validation stays out of the public post until the report is opened again or the sentence is replaced.

Posture language such as may, could, would examine, and appears consistent with marks a thread that is still open. An open thread is the right label when the report is missing, when the committee match is incomplete, or when an amendment might still be in the queue and has not been opened.

Personal financial disclosures, where an office requires them, are a different form. Do not cite the committee report for a sentence about the personal disclosure, or the reverse.

FEC research by race

Office decides which report can be filled. A House memo cites the House committee's Form 3. A Senate memo cites the Senate committee's Form 3. A presidential memo cites the presidential committee's Form 3P and follows the national guide linked above. A mayor, a state legislator, or another state or local candidate is routed to the state or local disclosure.

Candidate research by race groups the public profiles by office. Candidate research by state groups them by place. Either index is a way to find the person. The finance sentence still waits for the filing. Profiles are research records. A profile is not a certification that a person is on a ballot, and it is not a receipt total.

Same-cycle comparisons stay inside one office. A House receipt total is not a stand-in for a Senate committee, and a presidential committee does not absorb a state committee's report.

Common mistakes

Citing the data catalog instead of the report. Publishing a figure before checking for a later amendment. Adding an original report to its amendment. Mixing a principal committee with joint fundraising or outside spending. Reading cycle-to-date as the period total. Treating a donor's employer as an endorsement. Using a name match when the committee identifier points at a different person. Filling a state or local race with an FEC section because a federal race in the same state has one.

The correction is to reopen the filing, name the committee and the period, and leave the sentence in the notes when the filing is a different document from the one the sentence describes. A campaign running the same pass on its own candidate uses self opposition research.

The race index for the person is candidate research by race. The definition of the wider file, and the rule that a state or local candidate may never appear in an FEC report, is opposition research.