Campaign Finance

Quick Guide: Guide to Political Action Committees and Interest Groups

• Almanac of Federal PACs, (biennial)
  --lists of registered Political Action Committees (PACs).
• Campaign and Election Reform
  --provides an overview of campaign finance, lists of resources, and key information resources.
• Campaign Finnce Information Center
  --"dedicated to helping journalists follow the campaign money trail -- on the national, state and local levels."
• Color of Money : Campaign Contributions, Race, Ethnicity, and Neighborhoods
  --produced by the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization Public Campaign. Similar in content to the Center for Responsive Politics site, but focuses more on the role of race in campaign contributions.
• 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.
• LexisNexis Congressional (Penn State Access Account required)
  -- search for bills related to campaign finance reform here.
• Opensecrets.org -- The Center for Responsive Politics
  --"a non-partisan, non-profit research group based in Washington, D.C. that specializes in the study of Congress and particularly the role that money plays in its elections and actions..."
  • Open Secrets, published by the Center for Responsive Politics
    --also available online.
    --member profiles of PAC (Political Action Committee) contributions.
• PoliticalMoneyLine
  --"The non-partisan Federal candidate campaign money page." For the Official Federal Election Commission web site to view images of the reports candidates submit in paper and electronically vist the Campaign Finance Reports and Data.
• Project Vote Smart
  --provides a great deal of information about campaign finance. Try these pages and discover others by following the links they provide: Campaign Finances page and News Room.
• Vital Statistics on American Politics (available to all researchers in the library. Outside the library, available to researchers with a Penn State Access Account)
  More than 200 tables on U.S. elections and political parties, public opinion and voting, the media, the three branches of U.S. government, foreign, military, social and economic policy. Contains some time series data. Data can be exported for use in excel or other statistical software.