Journalism - J4450 Reporting and Writing I

Track Political Contributions Using the Following Tools:

• Federal Election Commission
  In 1975, Congress created the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to administer and enforce the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) - the statute that governs the financing of federal elections. The duties of the FEC, which is an independent regulatory agency, are to disclose campaign finance information, to enforce the provisions of the law such as the limits and prohibitions on contributions, and to oversee the public funding of Presidential elections.
  • FEC Disclosure Data Search
  • FEC Search by Individual Contributor

• Follow the Money - (National Institute on Money in State Politics) is a good resource for tracking money in state politics
• Open Secrets  - is a campaign spending "watch dog" from the Center for Responsive Politics
• The Sunlight Foundation Tools - "The Sunlight Foundation is a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that uses the tools of civic tech, open data, policy analysis and journalism to make our government and politics more accountable and transparent to all."
• MapLight.org is a nonpartisan research organization that reveals money’s influence on politics.
• CampaignMoney.com  Uses FEC data.
• Missouri Ethics Commission - contains information on state campaign finance disclosure as well as lobbyist reporting.

GovTrack.us Track bills in Congress, your representative’s voting records, upcoming committee meetings—alerts can be received by email.

Internet Archives' Political Ad Archive  collects political TV ads in key early 2016 primary election states, unlocking the metadata underneath and highlighting quality journalism to provide journalists, civic organizations, academics, and the general public with reliable information on who is trying to influence them and how.