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codeforbirmingham / Open-Disclosure

Understanding Alabama Campaign Finance Data
http://www.codeforbirmingham.org/Open-Disclosure/
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Candidates sometimes spend more than total raised #86

Open Taitrnator opened 9 years ago

Taitrnator commented 9 years ago

Research issue. This wil prompt lots of questions, so we should research this and understand why that is.

agrueneberg commented 9 years ago

In-kind contributions and receipts are missing from the totals right now. Receipts seem to be related to loans, so I'm not sure whether they fall into the contribution, expenditure, or a third category?

cortezsmith commented 9 years ago

One possible reason for the discrepancy may be that funds spent from a candidates personal finances are reported but may not count as "funds raised". I have the 2014 campaign guidelines here: http://www.fec.gov/pdf/candgui.pdf . The contribution guidelines begin in chapter 3. In particular here is a snippet from page 15 of the guidelines:

"Unlike the other types of contributions listed here, contributions (including loans or advances) made from the candidate’s personal funds to his or her campaign are not subject to any limits, though they must still be reported. "