Tracing Political Footprints: Investigating Candidates' Political Histories
- Elizabeth Clemons
- Sep 5
- 3 min read
Tip Sheet
This tip sheet is connected to workshop 3 of our fall candidate backgrounding series. It is best used in conjunction with the workshop recording, available here.
Mapping their Career
Sunlight Research Center's Timeline & Source List
Campaign Finance
Definitions
Candidate Committees: Official campaign accounts; strict limits & disclosure (FEC).
Party Committees: National & congressional arms raising for federal races.
PACs: Political action committees subject to contribution limits, can make political contributions
Super PACs: Political committees with unlimited disclosed contributions and independent expenditures, cannot coordinate spending with candidates or parties
501(c) Nonprofits / Trade Groups: Can spend politically; donors often hidden.
Campaigns: Official committees affiliated with candidate, subject to contribution limits
Carey committees: Hybrid PACs with separate super PAC and traditional PAC accounts
Dark money groups: Often 501(c)(4)s or shell company, use funds from undisclosed sources to influence political outcomes
State
State-level campaign finance agencies
it varies!
Virginia: Virginia Public Access Project
Michigan: Michigan Campaign Finance Network
Oregon: Campaign Funderator
New Mexico: Openness Project
Colorado:
California: CalMatters legislative tracker
Federal
By simply entering a donor or politician's name, organization, or zip code, users can quickly retrieve data on their political contributions at the state or federal level.
Power Mapping — visualize connections between donors, politicians, committees and other influential figures
Tracking Legislative Activities
Federal
Legislator Misconduct Database
Sign up to receive email updates on a legislator in the House or Senate.
Use OpenSecrets to look for an official’s interactions with lobbyists, donors, industries, and more.
Can monitor federal legislation, track voting records, see committee assignments for each member, and follow activities of US Congress.
Sign up for alerts to receive updates on certain lawmakers to stay informed on legislative performance and priorities.
Has a record of all congressional activities, including bills, resolutions, committee reports, and voting records.
Has tools to track legislative activities.
Provides access to official federal government publications and documents, including bills, resolutions, committee reports, and Congressional records.
Use this source to find information on elected officials, including their backgrounds, committee assignments, key votes, and election results.
Plural Policy's Open Data & Democracy Tools
Free with premium options
Can track legislation at the state and federal levels
State
NCSL Bill Tracking and Subscription Services on Legislative Websites (for tracking bills at the state level)
2025 State Legislative Session Calendar (interactive map to see which legislative sessions have started and when they will start)
CalMatters Legislator Tracker Database
Use this database to search for legislation in California. This site provides a really good example of what these tracking databases at the state-level could look like.
Use this database to search for legislation in Texas. Through this site, you can search both the Senate and the House.
New York
Use this database to track legislation at the state-level in New York.
Use this database to track legislation at the city-level in New York City.
Colorado
Use this database to track legislation at the state-level in Colorado.
Another database to track legislation at the state-level in Colorado.
Free with premium options
Can track legislative activities across all 50 states and Congress
Assessing Ethics and Resource Use
Periodic Transaction Report (PTR) resources:
Personal Financial Disclosures
Tracking Changes to Websites
Political Ad Disclosures
Federal Communications Commission: FCC Public File
Meta (Facebook and Instagram)
Snapchat (Snap Political Ad Library)
Reddit (r/PoliticalAds subreddit)
🚨 These Tip Sheets are incredible resources, best used in conjunction with their live, hands-on workshop session component. Watch the recording here.
Questions or comments about Sunlight's workshops and resources? Contact Elizabeth at elizabeth@sunlightresearch.net.