Data sources
- Federal data: The Center for Responsive Politics gathers and standardizes political contribution data for candidates for federal office. Information about Missouri's U.S. senators and members of Congress comes from this source. Because the center updates data for candidates across all states, there can be a lag time between when a candidate files a new report and when information from that report appears in this app.
- State data: The National Institute for Money in State Politics gathers and standardizes political contribution data for politicians holding state office or state legislative seats. Information about donations to candidates for Missouri statewide offices, such as governor or attorney general, and the Missouri Legislature comes from this source. Because the institute tracks data for state-level politicians across the U.S., there can be a significant delay between when a politician files a new report and when information from that report appears in this app. The institute tracks contributions to candidates, but does not track contributions to traditional political action committees.
- State bills: Information about legislation passing through the Missouri Legislature is obtained from the Missouri House and Missouri Senate websites.
- Legislative districts: Information about a user's legislative districts is provided using Google's Civic Information API. When you submit an address, Google checks which legislative districts that address falls within. If you click the "Save Your Districts" button, this app will store a small cookie in your web browser containing only your legislative district numbers. This cookie allows us to personalize the app for you. The cookie exists only in your browser and is never stored by the Post-Dispatch. You can easily remove the cookie at any time by clicking the "Clear Saved Districts" button.
- Photos: We obtain photos of legislators, officeholders and candidates from several sources. Photos of Missouri's U.S. senators and members of Congress come from the Government Printing Office. Photos of Missouri state legislators come from the Missouri House and Missouri Senate websites. Photos of statewide officeholders come from the Post-Dispatch and the Associated Press. Photos of non-incumbent candidates come from their respective campaigns.
Politicians and donors
This app is focused on politicians running for state or federal office. It does not include information about local politicians, such as county executives, mayors, aldermen, or school board members.
This app includes all of Missouri's current U.S. senators, U.S. representatives, statewide officeholders, state senators, and state representatives. It also includes candidates running for Congress or for statewide office. It does not include candidates running for the Missouri Legislature.
As mentioned above, there can be a delay between when a politician files a report and when the contents of the report are included in this app. There can also be a delay between when candidates declares they're running for a particular office and when they appear in this app. In election years, March 31 is the deadline for candidates to file for statewide office or seats in the Missouri Legislature.
The Post-Dispatch and the aforementioned data providers attempt to group donations from the same donor. However, this grouping process is not perfect; as a result, some donors may be listed more than once in the app.
Also, because the federal and state contribution data in this app come from different sources, the same donor may have two donor profile pages: one for contributions to federal candidates, and one for contributions to state candidates.
Candidates are not required to itemize donations of $200 or less in federal races — or $100 or less in Missouri state races — though some candidates may choose to do so. In many cases in this app, such unitemized donations are listed as one item for a candidate.
Top ten lists
- Federal: Lists of top ten donors and industries for federal candidates are compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. The lists cover the most recent six-year election cycle for U.S. Senate candidates, and the most recent two-year election cycle for U.S. House candidates. The lists are based on Federal Election Commission data. Any organizations named on the lists did not themselves donate. Rather the money came from the organization's PAC, its individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals' immediate families. Organization totals include subsidiaries and affiliates.
- State: Lists of top ten donors for Missouri statewide and state legislative candidates are compiled by the Post-Dispatch by analyzing donation data from the National Institute for Money in State Politics. The lists cover the most recent four-year election cycle. Because it happens regularly in state politics that one candidate runs for multiple offices or seats within a four-year period, we combine the statewide and legislative donation data to ensure we have four years of data when generating these lists.
Credits
Developers Andrew Nguyen and Josh Renaud designed and programmed this app. They relied heavily on work by former Post-Dispatch data reporter Walker Moskop. Editor Amanda St. Amand supervised the project.