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The first RESTful API for the Federal Election Commission. We're aiming to make campaign finance more accessible for journalists, academics, developers, and other transparency seekers.
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Question on codebooks e.g. back_reference_transaction_id #4153

Open sysilviakim opened 4 years ago

sysilviakim commented 4 years ago

Hi everyone,

This is a community question---I should have asked this question a long, long time ago, but I do not fully understand some of the variables, esp. the internally labeled IDs. Among them,

and so on. I've had some educated guesses, but I would like to revisit them to see if there's anything that I've missed. For instance, the following are two contribution records with the same transaction_id, but other than that, there's nothing much in common (order of variables changed to better highlight the difference). 

  transaction_id contribution_receipt_date contribution_receipt_amount
1    SA11AI.6620       2015-01-07T00:00:00                         300
2    SA11AI.6620       2015-01-07T00:00:00                         250
  contributor_aggregate_ytd committee_id
1                       300    C00255257
2                       250    C00524454
                                                                  committee.name
1 AMERICAN MOVING AND STORAGE ASSOCIATION INC POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (AMPAC)
2                                                     CONSERVATIVE MAJORITY FUND
       contributor_name contributor_state memoed_subtotal contributor.committee_id
1       BUENDIA, HECTOR                NV           FALSE                     <NA>
2 HESS 614, PHYLLIS MRS                IL           FALSE                     <NA>
  two_year_transaction_period entity_type is_individual receipt_type election_type
1                        2016         IND          TRUE           15             P
2                        2016         IND          TRUE           15             P
  schedule_type contributor_last_name contributor_first_name contributor_city
1            SA               BUENDIA                 HECTOR  NORTH LAS VEGAS
2            SA              HESS 614                PHYLLIS         BUSHNELL
               contributor_street_1 contributor_street_2 contributor_zip
1 4171 DISTRIBUTION CIRCLE, STE 103                 <NA>       890303359
2                 19485 N 1700TH RD                 <NA>           61422
      contributor_occupation contributor_employer candidate_last_name election_type_full
1 VP OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CDS MOVING EQUIPMENT                <NA>               <NA>
2                       <NA>                 <NA>                <NA>               <NA>
  contributor_id                                                      line_number_label
1           <NA> Contributions From Individuals/Persons Other Than Political Committees
2           <NA> Contributions From Individuals/Persons Other Than Political Committees
  back_reference_schedule_name schedule_type_full contributor_suffix
1                         <NA>  ITEMIZED RECEIPTS               <NA>
2                         <NA>  ITEMIZED RECEIPTS               <NA>
  conduit_committee_street1 candidate_office_full fec_election_type_desc candidate_name
1                      <NA>                  <NA>                PRIMARY           <NA>
2                      <NA>                  <NA>                PRIMARY           <NA>
  candidate_id receipt_type_desc filing_form donor_committee_name conduit_committee_zip
1         <NA>      CONTRIBUTION         F3X                 <NA>                    NA
2         <NA>      CONTRIBUTION         F3X                 <NA>                    NA
  candidate_middle_name contributor_prefix fec_election_year contributor_middle_name
1                  <NA>               <NA>              <NA>                    <NA>
2                  <NA>                MRS              <NA>                    <NA>
  original_sub_id       image_number candidate_office candidate_suffix entity_type_desc
1            <NA>        15951152413             <NA>             <NA>       INDIVIDUAL
2            <NA> 201507279000421654             <NA>             <NA>       INDIVIDUAL
  report_type conduit_committee_name file_number candidate_office_state
1          Q1                   <NA>     1003450                   <NA>
2          MY                   <NA>     1018032                   <NA>
  conduit_committee_state                                                    pdf_url
1                    <NA>        http://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?15951152413
2                    <NA> http://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?201507279000421654
  amendment_indicator_desc                        load_date candidate_office_district
1                      ADD 2017-06-17T20:56:16.274170+00:00                      <NA>
2                      ADD 2017-06-17T20:56:16.274170+00:00                      <NA>
  memo_code_full recipient_committee_type conduit_committee_city report_year
1             NA                        Q                   <NA>        2015
2             NA                        N                   <NA>        2015
  increased_limit              sub_id back_reference_transaction_id conduit_committee_id
1              NA 4041620151241910912                          <NA>                   NA
2              NA 4072720151247929876                          <NA>                   NA
  national_committee_nonfederal_account candidate_prefix     link_id
1                                    NA             <NA> 4.04152e+18
2                                    NA             <NA> 4.07272e+18
  conduit_committee_street2 unused_contbr_id line_number memo_code candidate_first_name
1                        NA             <NA>        11AI      <NA>                 <NA>
2                        NA             <NA>        11AI      <NA>                 <NA>
  candidate_office_state_full amendment_indicator      receipt_type_full memo_text
1                        <NA>                   A POLITICAL CONTRIBUTION      <NA>
2                        <NA>                   A                   <NA>      <NA>
  committee_name contributor.organization_type contributor.cycle contributor.cycles
1             NA                          <NA>                NA               NULL
2             NA                          <NA>                NA               <NA>
  contributor.party_full contributor.organization_type_full contributor.party
1                   <NA>                               <NA>              <NA>
2                   <NA>                               <NA>              <NA>
  contributor.committee_type contributor.name contributor.candidate_ids
1                       <NA>             <NA>                      NULL
2                       <NA>             <NA>                      <NA>
  contributor.street_2 contributor.committee_type_full contributor.state
1                 <NA>                            <NA>              <NA>
2                 <NA>                            <NA>              <NA>
  contributor.designation_full contributor.treasurer_name contributor.filing_frequency
1                         <NA>                       <NA>                         <NA>
2                         <NA>                       <NA>                         <NA>
  contributor.designation contributor.street_1 contributor.zip contributor.city
1                    <NA>                 <NA>            <NA>             <NA>
2                    <NA>                 <NA>            <NA>             <NA>
  contributor.state_full committee.organization_type committee.cycle
1                   <NA>                           T            2016
2                   <NA>                        <NA>            2016
  committee.committee_id
1              C00255257
2              C00524454
                                                                             committee.cycles
1 c(1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020)
2                                                             c(2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020)
  committee.party_full committee.organization_type_full committee.party
1                 <NA>                Trade Association            <NA>
2                 <NA>                             <NA>            <NA>
  committee.committee_type committee.candidate_ids      committee.street_2
1                        Q            character(0)                    <NA>
2                        N                  list() ATTN: SCOTT B MACKENZIE
  committee.committee_type_full committee.state committee.designation_full
1               PAC - Qualified              VA    Lobbyist/Registrant PAC
2            PAC - Nonqualified              VA               Unauthorized
  committee.treasurer_name committee.filing_frequency committee.designation
1          VEONI, DANIEL R                          Q                     B
2        SCOTT B MACKENZIE                          Q                     U
             committee.street_1 committee.zip committee.city committee.state_full
1              1611 DUKE STREET     223143406     ALEXANDRIA             Virginia
2 2776 S ARLINGTON MILL DR #806         22206      ARLINGTON             Virginia
  contributor
1          NA
2          NA

I have worked quite a bit with openFEC data, but I never found the official codebook for the API outputs. Am I missing something?

Thank you very much for your time.

lbeaufort commented 4 years ago

Hi @sysilviakim, thanks for your question. In the meantime, you can also ask questions, discuss the data, and research previously answered questions in the FEC data Google Group. This group is not moderated by the FEC, but has lots of useful information.