Documentation · Data inventory
The Texas Money Investigator answers questions from four public datasets — two from the Texas Ethics Commission (state-level campaign finance and lobby registrations) and two from the City of Austin (city-level campaign finance and lobby disclosures). Every number the agent reports cites a row in one of the tables described below.
Every electronically filed campaign-finance report at the state level since July 2000. Ships as one ~1 GB ZIP of fixed-schema CSVs covering contributions, expenditures, loans, pledges, debts, travel, assets, cover sheets, and the filer index.
Statewide candidates, officeholders, committees · 2000 → present · ~1.0 GB ZIP · ~5 GB CSV uncompressed
Annual Excel snapshots of every registered state lobbyist, the clients each represents, the subject matters they're working on, and the political funds they touch. We ingest 2018 through 2026 (nine years).
Statewide registered lobbyists · 2018 → 2026 · ~52 MB across 36 Excel files (4 per year × 9 years)
City Council and city-officeholder campaign finance, downloaded as Socrata CSVs from data.austintexas.gov. Same conceptual schema as TEC's CF bulk, but city-level only and in human-readable column names.
City Council candidates, officeholders, committees · 2014 → present · ~270 MB across 6 CSVs
Austin's lobby disclosure regime is more granular than the state's — registrants, clients, quarterly activity reports, the specific city issues they're registered against, named city officials lobbied, expenditures with a 'this was for city-official business' flag, and an employee table flagging council relatives.
Austin city lobbyists, clients, and officials · current registration through historical filings · 10 CSVs
The four sources are deliberately not federated through a single identifier. Each jurisdiction maintains its own ID space — TEC's campaign-finance world uses filerIdent, TEC's lobby world uses FilerID, and Austin uses REGISTRANT_ID for lobbyists and free-text names for donors and recipients. Hard joins hold within a jurisdiction; cross-jurisdiction joins go through fuzzy name matching and should always be treated as candidate links, not facts.
Most interesting investigations cross-reference the same person or company across all four datasets:
contribs or Austin contributions.expend or Austin expenditures.LobbyGroupByLobbyist or Austin clients.RegisteredLobbyists or Austin registrants.A company that appears in all four — donating, getting paid as a vendor, hiring lobbyists, and employing a registered lobbyist — is the kind of pattern this app surfaces.
Every electronically filed campaign-finance report at the state level since July 2000. Ships as one ~1 GB ZIP of fixed-schema CSVs covering contributions, expenditures, loans, pledges, debts, travel, assets, cover sheets, and the filer index.
Statewide candidates, officeholders, committees · 2000 → present · ~1.0 GB ZIP · ~5 GB CSV uncompressed
filers.csvfiler indexMaster roster of every filer (candidates, officeholders, GPACs, SPACs, committees). Joins everything else through filerIdent.
contribs_##.csv, cont_ss.csv, cont_t.csv, returns.csvtens of millionsSchedules A/C — itemized political contributions to a filer, plus contributor identity and amount.
expend_##.csv, expn_t.csvmillionsSchedules F/G/H/I — itemized political expenditures by a filer to a payee, with category code.
expn_catg.csvlookupExpenditure category code → human label (e.g. ADVERT, CONSULT, FOOD).
cover.csv, cover_ss.csv, cover_t.csvall reportsCover sheet 1 — one row per filed report with totals (raised, spent, on hand) and report period.
loans.csvschedule ELoans owed by the filer (lender, amount, terms, guarantor).
pledges.csv, pldg_ss.csv, pldg_t.csvschedule BPledges of future contributions not yet received.
debts.csvschedule LOutstanding debts the filer owes for goods/services.
credits.csvschedule KCredits — refunds and rebates received by the filer.
travel.csvschedule TOut-of-state travel paid for from political funds.
assets.csvschedule MAssets ≥ $500 disclosed by judicial filers.
final.csvfinal reportsFinal-report flags (filer is closing the account).
cand.csvDCE candidatesCandidates benefiting from a direct campaign expenditure made on their behalf without their consent.
spacs.csvSPAC indexIndex of specific-purpose committees with their declared purpose.
notices.csv, purpose.csvcover sheets 2 & 3Cover sheet 2 (notices received from candidates/officeholders) and cover sheet 3 (committee purpose statements).
Annual Excel snapshots of every registered state lobbyist, the clients each represents, the subject matters they're working on, and the political funds they touch. We ingest 2018 through 2026 (nine years).
Statewide registered lobbyists · 2018 → 2026 · ~52 MB across 36 Excel files (4 per year × 9 years)
<YYYY>RegisteredLobbyists.xlsx~2k / yearMaster list of registered lobbyists for the year. The roster.
<YYYY>LobbyGroupByLobbyist.xlsx~10k / yearOne row per lobbyist-client engagement with compensation. The core 'who is hired by whom' table.
<YYYY>LobbySubjMatter.xlsx~30k / yearSubject-matter codes per lobbyist-client engagement (e.g. ENERGY, HEALTHCARE, INSURANCE, WATER).
<YYYY>Pol_FundsByLobbyists.xlsxsmallLobbyists who were compensated or reimbursed from political funds — direct money flow between political funds and lobbyists.
City Council and city-officeholder campaign finance, downloaded as Socrata CSVs from data.austintexas.gov. Same conceptual schema as TEC's CF bulk, but city-level only and in human-readable column names.
City Council candidates, officeholders, committees · 2014 → present · ~270 MB across 6 CSVs
contributions.csv238kEvery contribution to a Council candidate / officeholder / committee. The donor table.
expenditures.csv28kEvery campaign expenditure with payee, amount, and free-text description.
report_detail.csv2.8kCover-sheet equivalent — one row per filed report with totals, election cycle, and office held/sought.
transaction_detail.csv267kPre-joined transaction view — contributions and expenditures together, normalized for cross-cutting queries.
direct_expenditures.csv3.1kDirect campaign expenditures — money spent to support/oppose a candidate without coordinating with them.
loans.csv312Campaign loans — lender, amount, terms.
Austin's lobby disclosure regime is more granular than the state's — registrants, clients, quarterly activity reports, the specific city issues they're registered against, named city officials lobbied, expenditures with a 'this was for city-official business' flag, and an employee table flagging council relatives.
Austin city lobbyists, clients, and officials · current registration through historical filings · 10 CSVs
registrants.csv320One row per registered city lobbyist — the master directory.
lobbyists_master.csv303Active lobbyist roster — a thinner version of registrants.csv used as a lookup.
clients.csv125kEach engagement between a registered lobbyist and a client, per filing period. The 'who is hired by whom' for the city.
reports.csv6.2kQuarterly activity reports — one per registrant per quarter — with category totals (food/bev, transport/lodging, gifts, entertainment, awards, honoraria, event fees, media support).
municipal_questions.csv162kSpecific city issues a registrant is lobbying on (e.g. 'ENTITLEMENTS RELATED TO LAND DEVELOPMENT'). The most granular look at what's being pushed.
city_officials.csv35Council members and key staff disclosed in lobbyist filings — the named-target list. Tiny because it's a lookup of the people being lobbied, not the lobbying activity.
expenditures.csv30Per-expenditure lobby spending with explicit links back to the city official the spend was on behalf of, including a CITY_OFFICIAL_BUS_YN flag.
employees.csv772Lobbyist firm employees, with a flag for whether the employee is a council relative — a direct conflict-of-interest signal.
subject_matter.csv37Subject-matter category lookup (active flag included).
real_property.csv134kReal-property disclosures — properties the registrant has a financial interest in that may be affected by lobbied issues.
Texas Ethics Commission data published under Title 15 (Election Code) and Chapter 305 (Government Code), no usage restriction. City of Austin data published under City Code Chapter 2-2-26 (campaign finance) and Chapter 4-8 (lobby) via the Austin Open Data portal. Both are public records. We attribute on every page that cites them.