{"id":183,"date":"2015-10-20T14:46:09","date_gmt":"2015-10-20T14:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trustworthygovernment.us\/?page_id=183"},"modified":"2019-01-22T00:57:38","modified_gmt":"2019-01-22T00:57:38","slug":"where-does-your-member-of-congress-spend-their-money","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/trustworthygovernment.us\/?page_id=183","title":{"rendered":"Where Does Your Member of Congress Spend Their Money?"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Frank Kirkwood<\/p>\n

October 2015<\/p>\n

Check Out Your Own Representative’s or Senator\u2019s Political Spending<\/h3>\n

Your representative in the US House or US Senate may be the biggest campaign spender in your area.\u00a0 Follow the steps below to get a look at the payments they make to help elect other candidates in other districts. \u00a0We need them to make these payments to only reform candidates.<\/p>\n

Typically, incumbents\u00a0contribute directly to candidates through their Principal Campaign Committee and also through their Leadership Political Action Committee (PAC). \u00a0\u00a0They also make\u00a0payments to parties and other committees that support other candidates.<\/p>\n

Finding and adding up all the money that the “Principal Campaign Committee” of your member of Congress\u00a0sends directly to federal, state, and local candidates and\u00a0to parties and other committees\u00a0takes a little digging. \u00a0Reviewing his or her Leadership PAC is much easier.<\/p>\n

First, lets look at the spending by their Principal Campaign Committee<\/b><\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. Go to\u00a0 http:\/\/www.fec.gov\/disclosurehs\/hsnational.do<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Above the map, select the most recent completed election cycle, \u201c2013-2014\u201d for House candidates, it varies for Senate candidates depending on when they last ran.\u00a0 (If you look at the current cycle (2015-2016) you will not see many of the payments we are looking for, as they are typically made very late in the election cycle.)<\/li>\n
  3. When the page reloads, click on your state on map.<\/li>\n
  4. Then click on your Congressional District (or on the map to the right for Senate elections).<\/li>\n
  5. On the new page, click on the candidate\u2019s name.<\/li>\n
  6. On the next page, make sure \u201c2013-14\u201d is still selected.<\/li>\n
  7. Halfway down this page you will see as section called \u201cII. Disbursements\u201d.\u00a0 This is where payments made by the candidate to parties and other candidates will appear. \u00a0These payments will be listed in one of three sub-categories: \u00a0“Operating Expenditures”, “Transfers to other Authorized Committees”, and “Other Disbursements”. \u00a0(There is a lot of variation in how candidates report these payments. You may need to check all three to see all of the payments.\u00a0 It is best to start with \u201cOther Disbursements\u201d.)<\/li>\n
  8. Click on each of these sub-categories to open them (unless the amount is \u201c$0\u201d).<\/li>\n
  9. On the page for each sub-category, the easiest way to find payments to other candidates and to parties is to click on the column heading \u201cAmount\u201d then click the arrows next to \u201cAmount\u201d until the list shows the highest amount at the top.\u00a0 These payments are often near the top of the list.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The \u201cPayee Name\u201d for this sort of payment will be variations on:<\/p>\n

    DEMOCRATIC (OR REPUBLICAN) NATIONAL COMMITTEE
    \nNATIONAL REPUBLICAN (OR DEMOCRATIC) CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE
    \nSTATE DEMOCRATIC (OR REPUBLICAN) COMMITTEE
    \nNATIONAL REPUBLICAN (OR DEMOCRATIC) CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE
    \nAMERICAN CITIZENS FOR AMERICAN PROSPERITY FOR AMERICA PAC
    \nSMITH FOR CONGRESS
    \nJONES FOR MAYOR, etc.<\/p>\n

    10. \u00a0Add up all the payments to the party committees and PACs, to all congressional candidates and to all the other candidates.\u00a0 The total is the amount of money that the candidate spent, using their Principal Campaign Committee, in that cycle, to help elect other candidates in other districts.<\/p>\n


    \nTo find the amount spent by his or her Leadership PAC<\/b><\/h3>\n
      \n
    1. Go to https:\/\/www.opensecrets.org<\/a>.<\/li>\n
    2. In the upper right corner enter the politician\u2019s last name in the \u201cSearch OpenSecrets\u201d box.<\/li>\n
    3. On the next page click on the politicians\u2019s name under the \u201cMember\u201d group at the top of the results.<\/li>\n
    4. On the new page in the center, a bit below the purple box, under \u201cLeadership PAC\u201d, in blue, you will find the name of the politician\u2019s PAC (there could be more than one).\u00a0 Click on the name.<\/li>\n
    5. On the new page, you will see a selection box for \u201cSelect a Cycle:\u201d.\u00a0 Select 2014.<\/li>\n
    6. When the page reloads, select the tab \u201cExpenditures\u201d from the tabs listed across the screen just below the PAC name.*<\/li>\n
    7. On the new page you will see (next to \u201cContributions\u201d) dollar figures for \u201cContributions to federal candidates\u201d, for \u201cContributions to state & local candidates\u201d, and \u201cContributions to committees\u201d.<\/li>\n
    8. Add up all these payments.\u00a0 This is the amount of money that the candidate spent, using their Political Action Committee, in this cycle, to help elect other candidates in other districts.<\/li>\n
    9. Now add together the amount from the Principal Campaign Committee (above) and from the Political Action Committee(s) to get the total amount that this politician is spending to elect other candidates in other districts.<\/li>\n
    10. In most cases, that adds up to an awful lot of money!\u00a0 Let\u2019s use this process to advance reform.\u00a0 To reform our democracy and shift power from the few to the many, we need our representatives be step up and be leaders in reform and to give money to only those candidates who are also reformers.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      If your representative is collecting money and passing it on to candidates or groups or parties who oppose reform, then your representative is part of the problem.<\/p>\n

      *If you want to see which candidates this politician is sending money to, farther down this page, you will see the heading \u201c2014 PAC Contribution Data\u201d, under that is\u00a0“Contributions from this PAC to federal candidates (list recipients)\u201d.\u00a0 Click on \u201clist recipients\u201d to see all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      by Frank Kirkwood October 2015 Check Out Your Own Representative’s or Senator’s Political Spending Your representative in the US House or US Senate may be the biggest campaign spender in your area.  Follow the steps below to get a look at the payments they make to help elect other candidates in other districts.  We need […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-183","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trustworthygovernment.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trustworthygovernment.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trustworthygovernment.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trustworthygovernment.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trustworthygovernment.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=183"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/trustworthygovernment.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":470,"href":"https:\/\/trustworthygovernment.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/183\/revisions\/470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trustworthygovernment.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}