Each PAC and candidate committee has a unique identifier in FEC records. Candidate committees are allowed to donate to one another (within limits) so there is no guarantee that it's an acyclic graph. The world being full of smart people, it's possible this tool exists already
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You can find the bulk data you need on the FEC website. https://www.fec.gov/data/advanced/?tab=bulk-data … You can find anything on the FEC website! It takes some getting used to, but it is such a great website
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Feel free to ping me on DM, or maciej@ceglowski.com if you want help, or have questions about how FEC filings and payment limits work. I am no expert, but I have been banging my head against it long enough to leave an insightful bruise
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Replying to @Pinboard
I took a quick look over lunch. Number of entities N degrees from Google PAC (parties excluded): N=1: 61 N=2: 1805 N=3: 3639 N=4: 4589 ... N=9+: 4741
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Replying to @honestshrubber @Pinboard
Candidates ultimately supported: GRASSLEY, CHARLES E SENATOR; DELAURO FOR CONGRESS, ROSA; JONES, WALTER; CRAIG, ANGIE; KIHUEN, RUBEN; WELDER, BRENT; RASKIN, JAMIE; MOONEY, ALEXANDER XAVIER; INHOFE, JAMES M; MULVANEY, JOHN MICHAEL 'MICK'; RICE, KATHLEEN; NADLER, JERRY
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Replying to @honestshrubber @Pinboard
but that's only direct contributions to candidates, here's an example path for "AL OLSZEWSKI FOR US SENATE": C00428623 -> C00467431 -> C00008086 -> C00639476
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Replying to @honestshrubber @Pinboard
C00428623=Google C00467431=EYE OF THE TIGER POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE C00008086=MONTANA REPUBLICAN STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE C00639476=AL OLSZEWSKI FOR US SENATE
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Replying to @honestshrubber @Pinboard
Overall I'm not totally sure how useful this is since the large dispersal probably means that anyone who makes donations to major PACs supports tons of candidates?
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Replying to @honestshrubber
I think you can prune out anything that goes through the RNCC or state party committees. The paths I think are most interesting are GOOGLE -> PAC1 -> PAC2 [...] -> CANDIDATE, where the intermediaries are non-party PACs obfuscating what is a fairly direct donation
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Replying to @Pinboard
Yeah, I tried, but I think the coding of entity types is also erroneous. I'll take a look if I have time later, but the data seems very messy!
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Thanks for this useful info! Messy data sounds all too believable :-(
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Replying to @Pinboard
Somehow their web interface seems to get it right, but the bulk data seems to have all kinds of incorrect transaction information (wrong direction, wrong transaction number, wrong entity type)
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