Campaign Finance Summary

Description:

This data set contains a summary of information about candidate campaigns and political committees by election year. For candidate campaigns and single-year/election committees, a single record is provided that covers all activity of the campaign for the given election year. Information for continuing political committees is summarized by calendar/reporting year. The data set covers that prior 16 years plus the current election year. The data are compiled from the campaign reports deposit (C3), campaign summary reports (C4), campaign registrations (C1/C1pc) and candidate declarations and elections data provided to the PDC by the Washington Secretary of State. Records are updated in near real-time, typically less than 2 minutes from the time the campaign submits new data.


This dataset is a best-effort by the PDC to provide a complete set of records as described herewith. 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
active_candidate checkbox Indicates that a candidate campaign is considered "active" in the election. Candidates who have withdrawn or discontinued their campaigns are not considered active. Also candidates who registered their campaign with the PDC but did not formally declare their candidacy with elections officials during or after the declarations period are not considered active. Candidates who did not advance from the primary election or did not win the general election are still considered active. Campaigns prior to 2024 may have incomplete or missing data for this field.
ballot_committee text An X in this column designates the committee is supporting or opposing one or more ballot measures.
ballot_number text The ballot number or numbers assigned to a ballot proposal. Local ballot proposals in different jurisdictions may have overlapping ballot numbers. This field is a comma separated list of unique ballot numbers being supported or opposed by the committee.
ballot_proposal_count number The number of ballot proposals that the committee is supporting or opposing in the election year. This field does not apply to candidate committees.
ballot_proposal_detail text Full details about all the ballot proposals being supported or opposed by the committee in JSON format, with the intent that this information can be consumed by computer systems.
ballot_title text The title of the ballot proposal that the committee is supporting or opposing. For a given year, a committee may choose to support multiple ballot proposals. When there is more than one title, the ballot title will be shown as "Various". If there are multiple ballot_proposals but the titles are all the same, the title will be shown.
bonafide_committee text An X in this column means this is a bona fide party committee
bonafide_type text The type of bonafide party committee, for example State Party, County Party, Leg Dist Party, party Associated committee.
candidacy_id number Candidacy ID
candidate_committee_phone text The committee phone number. In the case of a candidate, this is the phone number of the candidate, not the candidate's committee.
candidate_committee_status text The status of a campaign at a point in time: Candidate declared – indicates that a candidate formally declared their candidacy during declaration week in May. Candidate registered - indicates that the candidate submitted their candidate registration to the PDC. Candidate withdrew – indicates that a candidate formally declared and then formally withdrew their declaration in May. Candidate discontinued campaign – indicates that the candidate registered their campaign, may or may not have raised money, did not formally withdraw, and stopped campaigning. Candidate deceased – indicates that the candidate died after registration.
candidate_email text The candidate’s personal e-mail. This email may be the same as the candidate’s committee email.
carryforward_amount number This filed indicates the amount of money that was reported as the starting balance on the first C4 filed for this filer_id and election year. For continuing committees, this is the balance carried forward for the previous year. For all others, this is money that was remaining from a previous campaign. For example, remaining funds from a candidate's 2012 campaign may be applied as the starting balance of the candidate's 2014 campaign. Any value reported here is not new funds, it was reported as a gain on a previous campaign or election year. Nothing in this definition supersedes applicable WAC/RCW.
committee_acronym text If a political committee is known by an abbreviation it is placed in this column. This acronym is optional. An example would be the WA Education Association, whose acronym is WEA.
committee_address text The street address of the committee. For candidates, this is the address provided for the candidate committee, not necessarily the address of the candidate.
committee_category text This column contains a category for a political committee (PAC) for example: Continuing Political Committee, Party Committee, committees Affiliated with a party, Single election year committee, School levy committee, Local ballot initiative, Caucus political committee, Statewide Initiative committee.
committee_city text The city of the committee. For candidates, this is the address provided for the candidate committee, not necessarily the address of the candidate.
committee_county text The county of the committee. For candidates, this is the address provided for the candidate committee, not necessarily the address of the candidate.
committee_email text The email address of the committee. For candidates, this is the email address provided for the candidate committee, not necessarily the email address of the candidate.
committee_id number 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.
committee_state text The state of the committee. For candidates, this is the address provided for the candidate committee, not necessarily the address of the candidate.
committee_zip text The zip code of the committee. For candidates, this is the address provided for the candidate committee, not necessarily the address of the candidate.
continuing checkbox Whether the PAC is continuing or not. Only set for PACs. Null for candidate, surplus, bonafide and caucus.
contributions_amount number The sum total of all contributions reported. Refer to the "Contributions to Candidates and Political Committees" data set for line-item details.
debts_amount number The current outstanding debt of the campaign as of the time that the most recent C4 campaign summary report was filed.
declared calendar_date The date the candidate campaign declared their candidacy with the Secretary of State. This field only applies to candidate campaigns.
discontinued calendar_date The date the candidate campaign discontinued their campaign.
election_date calendar_date This is the calendar month/day/year of the election where a candidate is elected to office or the date of the election for a ballot initiative committee.
election_status text This field represent the status of a candidate jurisdiction relationship. The candidate could be an Incumbent running again for the same office. The candidate could be a challenger running against an incumbent. Or, the seat that is up for election could be an open seat meaning that there is no incumbent running for that seat.
election_year number The year of the election for a candidate or the calendar year that a political committee is registered for.
exempt_nonexempt text This column designate whether a party committee is exempt from contribution limits or is non-exempt which means it is subject to limits when giving contributions.
expenditures_amount number The sum total of all expenditures reported. Refer to the "Expenditures by Candidates and Political Committees" data set for line-item details.
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 name as reported on the form C1 candidate registration or the political committee name as reported on the C1pc registration. 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.
filer_type text This column designates if this is a candidate committee (CA) or a political committee (CO).
filing_type text This field indicated the type of campaign finance reports being filed. "Electronic" indicates that all reports are filed electronically and all of the fields containing financial data are correctly calculated from the filed reports. "Paper" indicates that all campaign finance reports have been filed on paper and all of the fields containing financial data will be empty. "Mixed" indicates that one or more reports are filed on paper and all of the fields containing financial data are potentially incorrect. For both paper and mixed, please consult the individual reports in our "Imaged documents and reports data set to determine the campaign finance details. An empty value indicates that no campaign finance (C3 or C4) reports have been filed)
for_or_against text Designates whether the committee is supporting or opposing one or more ballot proposals. If the committee's stance is to both support and oppose various ballot proposals, the value of this field will be "both".
fund_id number Fund ID
general_election_status text For candidates, this field represents the status at a point in time. The field starts out as empty; after the general election, the status of the campaign is assigned as Lost in general; Judge certified before general; Won in general; Unopposed in general.
id text PDC internal identifier that corresponds to a candidate or Political committee record in an election year.
independent_expenditures_against_amount number The sum total of all independent (third party) expenditures made in opposition of the candidate. Independent expenditures are reported by the third party making the expenditure and the amount reported here only includes amounts where the third party accurately reported the name of the candidate. Refer to the "Independent Expenditures" data set for line-item details.
independent_expenditures_for_amount number The sum total of all independent (third party) expenditures made in support of the candidate. Independent expenditures are reported by the third party making the expenditure and the amount reported here only includes amounts where the third party accurately reported the name of the candidate. Refer to the "Independent Expenditures" data set for line-item details.
jurisdiction text The political jurisdiction associated with the office of a candidate or the jurisdiction of a ballot measure in the case of a political committee supporting or opposing a ballot measure. This field will be empty when a candidate or ballot measure jurisdiction is statewide.
jurisdiction_code text The unique identifier of the jurisdiction. It is associated with the office of a candidate or the jurisdiction of a ballot measure in the case of a political committee supporting or opposing a ballot measure. This field will be empty when a candidate or ballot measure jurisdiction is statewide.
jurisdiction_county text The county associated with the jurisdiction of a candidate or the jurisdiction of a ballot measure in the case of a political committee supporting or opposing a ballot measure. Multi-county jurisdictions are reported as the primary county. This field will be empty when a candidate or ballot measure jurisdiction is statewide.
jurisdiction_reporting_code text Jurisdictions have different reporting requirements based on the jurisdiction size and local laws adopted by certain jurisdictions. "N" indicates that there are no mandatory reporting requirements. "F" indicates that candidates are only required to file a financial affairs statement. "C" indicates that candidates are required to file both a financial affairs statement and a candidate registration. Candidates in an "N" or "F" jurisdiction may still have reporting requirements depending on the amount their campaign raises or spends.
jurisdiction_reporting_requirement text Text description of the codes in jurisdiction_reporting_code
jurisdiction_type text The type of jurisdiction this a candidate office represents: Statewide, Local, Judicial, etc. In the case of a committee supporting or opposing a ballot measure, it is the jurisdiction type of the ballot measure jurisdiction.
jurisdiction_voters number The number of registered voters in the jurisdiction. This number is based on the voter count of the prior year's election.
legislative_district text Legislative District
loans_amount number The current outstanding loan balance of the campaign as of the time that the most recent C4 campaign summary report was filed.
office text The office sought by the candidate.
office_code text The numeric code that defines the office. For example the office code 31 defines the office of Mayor. Combined with the jurisdiction_code it defines a particular office such as Mayor of Olympia.
on_general_election_ballot checkbox Indicates that the candidate is appearing on the general election ballot. This datum is only available after election status has been determined and the field will be null/empty before that point. Campaigns prior to 2024 may have incomplete or missing data for this field.
on_primary_election_ballot checkbox Indicates that the candidate is appearing on the primary election ballot. This datum is only available after election status has been determined and the field will be null/empty before that point. Campaigns prior to 2024 may have incomplete or missing data for this field.
other_pac text An X in this column designates the committee as a Continuing Political Committee.
pac_type text Pac_type can be bonafide, candidate, caucus, pac, or surplus
party text The political party as declared by the candidate on their C1 registration form. Contains only parties recognized by Washington State law.
party_code text Unique code that represents a candidates party. i.e. R represents Republican.
person_id number The unique ID assigned to a public office holder or candidate. This id is consistent across years and, offices or candidacies and is the preferred id for identifying a natural person.
pledges_amount number The current total pledges reported by the campaign as of the time that the most recent C4 campaign summary report was filed.
political_committee_type text This column designates the persuasion of the PAC; for example, Business, union, PAC, etc.
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.
primary_election_status text The most recent status for a candidate in the primary election. Upon registration, this field is empty. After the primary election, the status of the campaign is assigned as Lost in primary; Judge certified before primary; Not in primary; Won in primary; Unopposed in primary.
receipt_date calendar_date The postmark date of the relevant candidate C1 or political committee C1pc registration. A political committee is not required to submit a new or amended C1pc every year. It is possible that a C1pc may be several years old if there are no updates to report.
registered calendar_date The date the campaign first submitted a registration. Candidates may not have a date registered if they have declared their candidacy with the Secretary of State or submitted a financial affairs statement indicating their candidacy and have not submitted their registration.
reporting_option text This field represents the level of reporting required by the filer. The FULL reporting option requires all contribution and expenditure reports. The MINI reporting option does not require any reports after the C1 registration report is filed. Please consult the PDC web site for more information regarding reporting options.
treasurer_address text The address of the treasurer as reported on the C1pc registration.
treasurer_city text The city of the treasurer as reported on the C1pc registration.
treasurer_name text Treasurer Name
treasurer_phone text The phone number of the treasurer as reported on the C1pc registration.
treasurer_state text The state of the treasurer as reported on the C1pc registration.
treasurer_zip text The zip code of the treasurer as reported on the C1pc registration.
updated_at calendar_date The last time that the committee information was updated. This includes information such as the contact information or an amendment to the registration as changes in financial information that result from submitting or amending a report.
url url A link to a PDF version of the candidate C1 registration report as it was filed to the PDC.
withdrew calendar_date The date of withdrawl when a candidate withdraws their candidacy.