Must Be The Money:

An Intro to Campaign
Finance Disclosure
by Westley Bayas III
June 27, 2017

Delivered to
Hi, Im Wes. I get around.
 Follow the Money.

- Mark Deep Throat Felt

Learning Objectives
Understand the evolution of campaign finance
disclosure
Learn basic terminology, deadlines, and where to find
reports
How to read reports, and how to suss out important
pieces of information
What is campaign finance reporting?

Campaign finance reporting is a catch all

term that refers to the tracking of funds
raised and spent to promote candidates,
political parties, referenda, and policy
initiatives.
U.S. Campaign Finance in modern times
explained in 2 laws and 2 court cases

Laws Court Cases

1971: Federal Election 2010: Citizens United v.
Campaign Act Federal Election
Commission

2002: Bipartisan Campaign 2014: McCutcheon et al. v.

Reform Act (aka Feingold- Federal Election
McMain) Commission
Louisiana Campaign Finance in modern
times

State and local elections are governed by

the Campaign Finance Disclosure Act
(CFDA), created in 1980. There have been
adjustment made over time with limits
and ways to report, but this is the law that
any non federal election in Louisiana must
follow.
Lets review some key terminology
Cash on Hand (CoH)
This lists the balance of
the account at the
time of report
submission
Loan
Differs between candidate
(which are unlimited), bank
(which are unlimited), and
outside (which are tied to
limits)
Funds Raised
The total amount of
money collected through
contributions, loans, and in
kind donations
Aggregated
Contributions
The total amount of
donations one entity has
donated during an election
cycle
Funds Expended
The total amount that a
campaign spent during a
reporting period, including
expendures and loan
repayments
In-Kind Donations
Services provided to the
candidate at no cost to
them, but are still
considered contributions
to the campaign
UNITED STATES
SPENDING LIMITS

Place your screenshot here

LOUISIANA
SPENDING LIMITS

Place your screenshot here

UNITED STATES
FILING DEADLINES
(https://transition.fec.gov/info/rep
ort_dates_2017.shtml)
LOUISIANA
FILING DEADLINES

Place your screenshot here

Where to find reports
Federal State Localities
www.fec.gov http://ethics.la.gov/ In other states, the
CampFinanHome.asp local clerk of
x court/ethics board
will manage the
election results. Ex.
LA County:
https://ethics.lacity.o
rg/campaignfinance.
cfm
Now lets start
to dig into
reports
http://ethics.la.gov/CampaignFina
nceSearch/SearchByName.aspx
IMPORTANT SECTIONS

Contributions

In-Kind Donations

Loans
Place your screenshot here
Expenditures

Cash on Hand
Lets look at some different donations

Individual

Corporate

Corporate donations usually require

a bit more work to find out who's
behind them..
Research Resources
Secretary of State Search Engines Political Connects
The SoS website will Google/Bing/ Often times, your
be one of key places DuckDucKGo political friends and
to go RE: uncovering WestLaw connections will
who owns NewsBank know about
businesses and who www.FollowThe companies that are
is trying to funnel Money.org shells for individuals
money to prop up a Assessors site be willing to have
campaign. City and State confidential
contracts site conversations.
Why does this matter?
Donation

Researching
unknown/interesting
listings help tell a larger
story and show who is
trying to influence a
candidate/campaign
 It basically goes like this

IDENTIFY RESEARCH RELEASE

RELEASING THE
INFORMATION
(ex: https://storify.com/WestleyBayas/la- Place your screenshot here
campaign-finance-day)
If you do your research right, you can...

Inform Your People Build a Political Case

This will allow you to
determine who candidates
are getting support for, and
what/where they are
investing their political
financial capital.
Depending on your
candidate or their
opponent(s), you can use
this information to make
arguments on influence,
priorities, and future
decision making.
THANKS!
Any questions?
You can find me at:
@WestleyBayas wbayasIII@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/WestleyBayas

P.S. Ill be live tweeting campaign finance info on

July 17th, so make sure to add me on Twitter!