Campaign Finance Reporting History

Description:

This dataset contains a list of all campaign finance reports (C3 and C4) for the last 10 years including attached schedules. It includes reports that have been superseded by an amendment.


The primary purpose of this dataset is for data consumers to track report amendments and to examine the reporting history for a filer. Refer to other datasets to get actual values for any of the reports referenced herewith.


For candidates, the number of years is determined by the year of the election, not necessarily the year the report was filed. For political committees, the number of years is determined by the calendar year of the reporting period.


This dataset is a best-effort by the PDC to provide a complete set of records as described herewith and may contain incomplete or incorrect information. The PDC provides access to the original reports for the purpose of record verification.


Descriptions attached to this dataset do not constitute legal definitions; please consult RCW 42.17A and WAC Title 390 for legal definitions and additional information regarding political finance disclosure requirements.


CONDITION OF RELEASE: This publication and or referenced documents constitutes a list of individuals prepared by the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission and may not be used for commercial purposes. This list is provided on the condition and with the understanding that the persons receiving it agree to this statutorily imposed limitation on its use. See RCW 42.56.070(9) and AGO 1975 No. 15.


Last Updated:
Field Name Data Type Description
amended_by_report text This field only applies to records which have been superseded by an amendment. The value is the report number of the newer version of the report.
amends_report text This field only applies to records which amend a prior report. The value is the report number of the previous version of the report that is superseded by this record.
attachments text The report's attachment urls and all associated metadata in json format. Attachments may include original scanned reports (in the event of electronic filing exmeptions) or additional documentation supplied by the filer. Attachments may not be present on a given report.
ballot_number text If the committee is a Statewide Ballot Initiative Committee a ballot number will appear once a ballot number is assigned by the Secretary of State. Local Ballot Initiatives will not have a ballot number. This field will contain a number only if the Secretary of State issues a number.
committee_id text The unique identifier of a committee. For a continuing committee, this id will be the same for all the years that the committee is registered. Single year committees and candidate committees will have a unique id for each year even though the candidate or committee organization might be the same across years. Surplus accounts will have a single committee id across all years.
election_year number The election year in the case of candidates and single election committees. The reporting year in the case of continuing political committees.
filer_id text The unique id assigned to a candidate or political committee. The filer id is consistent across election years with the exception that an individual running for a second office in the same election year will receive a second filer id. There is no correlation between the two. For a candidate and single-election-year committee such as a ballot committee, the combination of filer_id and election_year uniquely identifies a campaign.
filer_name text The candidate or committee name as reported on the form C1 candidate or C1PC political committee registration form. The name will be consistent across all records for the same filer id and election year but may differ across years due to candidates or committees changing their name.
filing_method text Indicates if the report was filed online or sent in by mail. In most cases, electronic filing is required for forms C3 and C4.
for_or_against text Ballot initiative committees are formed to either support or oppose an initiative. This field represents whether a committee supports (for) or opposes (against) a ballot initiative.
jurisdiction text The political jurisdiction associated with the office of a candidate or ballot issue committee.
jurisdiction_county text The county associated with the jurisdiction of a candidate or local ballot proposition. Multi-county jurisdictions are reported as the primary county. This field will be empty for political committees and when a candidate jurisdiction is statewide.
jurisdiction_type text The type of jurisdiction this office is: Statewide, Local, Judicial, etc.
legislative_district text The Washington State legislative district. This field only applies to candidates where the office is "state senator" or "state representative."
metadata text At the point is submitted, the PDC automatically calculates totals and subtotals for certain information to make the report information easier to understand. This is primarily information that used to be captured on the forms, prior to electronic filing where the values can be calculated. None of the information in this field is supplied by the filer. The information is semi-structured JSON so that it is machine readable. The schema version of the information mirrors the schema version of the report_data column.
office text The office sought by the candidate. Does not apply to political committees.
origin text The PDC form identifier for this report. C3 is a report of cash receipts, monetary contributions and other amounts related to a deposit of funds. C4 is a report of expenditures and receipts summary. For more on forms and filing requirements, please refer to the PDC web site (https://www.pdc.wa.gov)
party text The political party as declared by the candidate on their C1 registration form. Contains only parties recognized by Washington State law.
position text The position associated with an office. This field typically applies to jurisdictions that have multiple positions or seats. This field does not apply to political committees.
receipt_date calendar_date The date received or postmark date of the report.
report_data text If this field is present, it serves as the official record of the submission. If absent, the official record of the report is the PDF found by following the link contained in the url field. The report_data field contains the form input data supplied by the user at the time of filing in json format.
report_from calendar_date The period that the report covers is indicated by the the report_from and report_through fields. For form C3, the report_from and report_through dates are the same and indicate the date of the deposit that is filed on the C3. For form C4, the report_from and report_through dates are the period that the report covers.
report_number text PDC identifier used for tracking the individual form C3 and C4 reports. The report number is unique to the report it represents. When a report is amended, the amendment receives a new report number that supersedes the original report.
report_through calendar_date The period that the report covers is indicated by the the report_from and report_through fields. For form C3, the report_from and report_through dates are the same and indicate the date of the deposit that is filed on the C3. For form C4, the report_from and report_through dates are the period that the report covers.
type text Shows if this report was filed for a candidate or a political committee.
url url A link to a PDF version of the original report as it was filed to the PDC. Most electronically filed reports will have a link. In the case of paper filed reports and some electronically filed reports, the exact report number can not be referenced to an image of the document. Please refer to the PDC dataset of imaged documents and reports which can be searched by filer_id, election_year and type to find the document images.
version text The version of the report, representing the structure and elements of the submission. The version is necessary because the data structure is subject to change and improvement over time. Mostly relevant to data that is provided as JSON columns. Two reports records with different versions may not be interpreted in the same way due to changes in the organization of the data that may occur between versions. Any analysis should account for version changes.