Skill: public-records-research-specialist / corporate-intelligence-investigator
Time: ~25 minutes

Goal

Trace donations, PACs, and independent spenders around a candidate or official.

Steps

1. Open OpenSecrets.
2. Search candidate or committee; export CSV if available.
3. Follow conduit contributions and leadership PACs.
4. For dark money routes, note 501(c) spenders and link to FEC filings where disclosed.
5. Cross-check a large donation against FEC raw data for the same cycle.
6. Document election cycle and reporting lag.

Pitfalls

• The employer field on FEC forms is self-reported and noisy.
• Independent expenditure labels can be wrong — read the underlying filing narrative.

Next steps

• Tutorial — Filing effective FOIA requests for contracts and agency spending