Welcome back to The Mids, our ongoing midterm election guide for all the questions you’re too afraid to ask your smart political friends. We’ve had quite a few questions submitted this week, but this question from Diane Conley popped out to me:
Diane, this is a great question!
The answer seems simple at first, but it quickly gets complicated. You can Google it, but you may not find what you actually want to know.
So, to get at it, we first have to break down the question a little. If you want to know who is giving money to a candidate, the answer depends on which office they’re seeking: federal, state or local. Campaign finance data lives in different places for each seat.
Let’s take them one by one:
Federal
Start here if you’re looking for information on someone running in the midterms for a seat in the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives. The official source for campaign finance information is the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
Once you’re there, you’ll want to click on “Search all campaign finance data.” From there, you can search for an individual candidate, or search for contributions.
To get a quick glance at the big money, click “Browse all and apply custom filters,” which takes you to this page. If you click on the spreadsheet filter labeled “Amount,” the contributions will sort from biggest to smallest. And if you just want to look at contributors from Michigan, scroll down on the left filter panel to click on “More contributor details,” which allows you to filter by state.
State
The official site is the Michigan Campaign Finance Searchable Database. It covers the governor’s race, Secretary of State, Attorney General and anyone running for the Michigan legislature.
You can search for a specific candidate or by contributor, or search using dates and amounts to try to find big donations. This site has fewer data-sorting tools than the FEC site, but if you poke around a bit, you’ll find a lot.
Local
This covers county races, city or township offices, or local ballot questions. Local campaign finance data is collected by county clerks, so where you go for information depends on where you live.
Search for your county + clerk + campaign finance and you should be able to find the appropriate site.
In Michigan, these ballot items are often not searchable, but there’s also less data to get through. So, if you find the candidate you’re interested in, you can pull up individual campaign finance filings either online or in person at the clerk’s office and then just look down the list. You usually won’t find many big dollar donors for these races, but I always find it fascinating to see who in my local community is supporting which candidates.
Dark Money and Foreign Influence?
These three federal, state and local approaches can give you a pretty good idea of where the money is coming from in most races, but there are ways for donors to hide their contributions behind groups that aren’t required to report their finances. This “dark money” is the hardest to trace, but the Michigan Campaign Finance Network has some helpful tips in its DIY Research guide.
Lastly, tracking foreign influence in U.S. elections is even more opaque. Federal rules prohibit direct donations by foreign residents, though they are allowed to spend money on lobbying. The organization Open Secrets has many tools to track campaign contributions, including the Foreign Lobby Watch page, where you can search by country.
Once again, thanks for the great question, Diane!
If you have a question about the midterms, send it our way using this form. I’ll do my best to find the answer. See you in two weeks!
Dustin Dwyer, Reporter
Producer's Corner
You may have seen that Michigan Senator Mallory McMorrow dropped out of the U.S. Senate race. Some of you (or your friends) may have already submitted your absentee ballots.
If that’s you, check out the article below.
Are you an audio-visual learner? Watch the video below.
