About

PAC Explorer is a tool. It's a visualization of the relationships between Political Action Committees (PACs) and the candidates running for office in 2016. PACs are represented by grey nodes, while candidates are colored according to their party affiliation.

This visualization tracks both direct contributions to candidates, which are capped by the FEC, and independent expenditures, in which PACs spend money to support or oppose candidates. They can purchase newspaper ads or organize events, send direct mailings or produce TV commercials. There is no limit on the amount a PAC can independently spend for or against a candidate.

Since 2008, American elections have seen a dramatic increase in these independent expenditures, commonly referred to as outside spending. This is largely as a result of the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which opened the doors to unlimited spending on the part of corporations and unions. Nevertheless, direct contributions remain an important part of the electoral landscape, and tracking them can reveal important information about influence and political support.

PAC Explorer exists to help along the process of uncovering that information. It will be updated on a weekly basis through Election Day.

Usage

Hovering over a node (PAC or candidate) in this visualization will reveal some basic information about it and will highlight its connections. Clicking on a PAC will reveal its expenditures. Clicking on a candidate will display the PACs that have contributed to it or spent money for or against it.

Search for your own senators, representatives, or preferred presidential candidates, and explore their funding networks. Use the search bar to find multiple candidates--for example, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump--and find what they do or don't have in common. Find the PACs of major corporations or organizations.

There are eight ready-made analyses on the left side of the page. For example, click on "Largest banks" and inspect the cluster of candidates in the center of the visualization who have received money from all or most of the major banks. You can also view the evident political leanings of the country's largest labor unions, or of the largest oil and gas companies.

Notes

This site is a beta. It was built using JQuery and D3.js using publicly available data. Data was aggregated, organized and integrated using Stata. Please note that data validation has been left to the good folks at the FEC and that little cleaning has been done beyond that which was conducted for readability purposes. Please note as well that there are certain segments of data left intentionally missing from this visualization; for example, PAC-to-PAC transfers are not included.

PAC Explorer was built with no partisan political agenda in mind. Its creator is Matt Lerner, who can be reached for questions, comments, concerns, advice, and unsolicited abuse at matt@pacexplorer.org.

This site could never have come into existence without the indispensable assistance of Dustin Poh, Lili Török, and Danny Sklar.

Last updated: 4/14/16