Deprecation Notice
The Campaign Finance application has been added to our Deprecation Roadmap as of March 15th, 2023. Please refer to the Deprecation Roadmap article for more details.
Campaign Finance Overview
With Campaign Finance, you can drive more engagement with your Open Data site through our out-of-the-box solution designed around driving transparency in the elections.
Data & Insights' Campaign Finance solution allows citizens to have easy access to candidates’ campaign contributions info, learn about the candidates they support, and be active participants in the state and local elections.
With the Campaign Finance Expenditure View, users will be able to explore candidates' campaign expenditures info, learn how candidates and committees spent the money, and compare spending profiles with other candidates running in a given race.
Skip to Campaign Finance Expenditure Page
Campaign Finance Contribution page
For data sites that have a Campaign Finance module setup, users can land on this page by navigating to https://domain/campaign_finance and selecting “Contribution” from the dropdown.
Configurable Banner: The module can be configured to have a logo and/or welcome text. The logo is set up through the Administration panel → Site Appearance → Header Bar section.
Source Data Last Updated: The Campaign Finance module is by a dataset that resides on the domain. By clicking on the Source Data Last Updated link, users will be taken to the “Primer” Page of the underlying dataset.
Campaign Contribution Date Range Filter: Contributions received during the date range.
Contribution Type Filter: Contributions received from an individual donor or Organizational donor. Users can select or de-select the checkbox to filter the contributions.
Left Side Panel:
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Election Year Filter: This configures the module to the year the candidate has run for the office. By default, the election year will show the current year.
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Candidate or Office Search Bar: For the selected election year, users can search for a candidate by candidate name or by office title. The search allows for up to 3 candidates.
The left side panel can be collapsed by using the arrow button (<).
- Search Dropdown: Users can browse and explore the list of candidates that match the search terms before selecting a candidate. The slider allows users to quickly navigate through a long list of candidates.
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Contribution Results: Once a candidate is selected, the search results will display the candidate’s Name and Total Contributions. For each candidate, users can see the candidate's name, office, jurisdiction, and party affiliation information (if available from the dataset) along with the Total Contributions. Each candidate is represented by a unique color to visually differentiate from other candidates.
Right Side Panel:
The right side panel includes 3 sections.
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Map
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Top Contributors Chart
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Contributions Over Time Chart
To view contributions raised by a candidate, start by searching for a candidate or office from the left side panel.
Map: The Contributor map shows the aggregated donations by location per candidate. Each bubble represents the relative size of donations aggregated by location. Users can filter the contributions by location by clicking on the bubble. The “Reset” action will return the map to its default state.
Top Contributors Chart: This shows the Top 5 contributors (up to 10) per candidate by dollar amount. A contributor is defined by unique name and address combination.
Contributions Over Time Chart: This shows the contribution trends over time.
Compare with another Candidate(s)
To compare contributions against another candidate(s), add another candidate to the search criteria.
Campaign Finance Expenditure page
For data sites that have a Campaign Finance module setup with Expenditures data, users can land on this page by navigating to https://domain/campaign_finance and selecting “Expenditure” from the dropdown.
Which takes you to the landing page:
Left Side Panel:
Once a candidate is selected, the search results will display the candidate’s Name, Total Contributions, and Total Expenditures. For each candidate, users can see the candidate's name, office, jurisdiction, and party affiliation information (if available in the contributions dataset) along with the Total Contributions and Total Expenditures. Each candidate is represented by a unique color to visually differentiate from other candidates.
Right Side Panel:
The right side panel includes 2 sections.
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Top Recipients Chart
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Expenditure Categories Chart
To view the expenditure made by a candidate, start by searching for a candidate or committee from the left side panel.
Expenditure Categories:
This shows the amount spent by a candidate/committee by expenditure category. By default, it shows up to 10 categories but the user can navigate to the next set of categories by clicking on “Next”.
Top Recipients:
This shows the Top 10 Recipients (up to 20) per candidate/committee by dollar amount. Users will be able to filter by a category to explore the top recipients for the selected category. A Recipient is defined by a unique name and address combination. Users will be able to navigate to the source data to explore more recipients.
Compare with another Candidate(s)
To compare the spending profile against another candidate(s), add another candidate to the search criteria.
Share
This allows users to share meaningful insights from Campaign Finance modules in Social Media Platforms. As a user, you will be able to search by candidates/election year/date ranges and be able to readily "share" interesting views about the candidates' campaign contributions or expenditures info in social media with the click of a button. The website link preserves the search criteria(s) in the URL.
Help
The “Help” link allows users to learn about the Campaign Finance module, and get context around how to use the module.
Go to Source Data
The Campaign Finance App’s Contributions and the Expenditures datasets reside on the domain. Users can choose between Contributions or Expenditures Source Data by clicking on the Go to Source Data link and then taken to the “Primer” Page of the underlying dataset by clicking it.
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