Common Questions Regarding CQ MoneyLine

Updated: August 2007

About CQ MoneyLine

What is CQ MoneyLine?
Do I need a subscription to access information on CQ MoneyLine?
Who are the editors of CQ MoneyLine and how can I contact them?
What kind of information is covered in CQ MoneyLine?
How often is the information on the site updated?
How does the information available in CQ MoneyLine compare to the information that was in CQ PoliticalMoneyLine?
Is CQ MoneyLine automatically included in my CQ.com subscription?
If I'm a current PoliticalMoneyLine subscriber, how can I get access to information on CQ.com?
How do I access CQ MoneyLine?

Using CQ MoneyLine

Step-by-Step Guides

What is CQ MoneyLine?

CQ MoneyLine is the leading source of comprehensive, timely and objective campaign finance and lobbying information available. With campaign donation and expenditure data dating to the 1979-80 election cycle, CQ MoneyLine helps you analyze the flow of money through the political system.

Features of this service include:

Daily news briefs on the latest developments affecting campaign finance, lobbying and ethics in government, including congressional action, Federal Election Commission announcements, relevant court decisions, events affecting candidates and their fundraising efforts, public opinion polls and trends.
Detailed financial profiles of presidential, House and Senate candidates; political action committees (PACs); national, state and local party committees; non-profit 527 groups; and registered lobbying firms
Information on individual donations to federal candidates, parties and PACs
Facts and figures on thousands of registered lobbyists, their clients and issues.

The information available on CQ MoneyLine is organized on a series of pages designed to make access easy and fast. The news briefs and a search tool that enables users to find and browse basic campaign finance, PAC, 527, candidate and lobbying information are presented on the site's front page. In-depth information is available on separate PACs & 527s, Candidates and Lobbying pages.

Do I need a subscription to access the information on CQ MoneyLine?

The daily news briefs, information on individual contributions to candidates, party committees and 527 organizations and related campaign finance data on the front page is generally available free of charge to anyone with a Web browser and access to the Internet. Only subscribers have access to the information available on the PACs/527s, Candidates and Lobbying pages of the site. This includes complete financial profiles for PACs, 527s, candidates and lobbying firms as well as advanced search features and compiled reports. For information on how to subscribe and subscription costs, please e-mail questions@cq.com.

Who are the editors and reporters of CQ MoneyLine and how can I contact them?

Alex Knott, Editor. Before joining CQ, Alex Knott worked as the political editor for the Center for Public Integrity. During his seven years at the center, he wrote stories and coordinated projects about the environment, contracting and money in politics. Alex also co-authored and contributed editorial content to six books. One of these included "The Buying of the President 2004," a New York Times bestseller that he also supervised. He has worked at nearly a dozen other publications based in the Washington area. Alex studied journalism at the University of Maryland.

Please send comments and feedback to moneyline@cq.com

What kind of information is covered in CQ MoneyLine?

CQ MoneyLine covers a wide range of information on campaign finance from the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the House Clerk, the Senate office of Public Records and various other federal offices. This information includes:

Administrative and financial information reported to the FEC by PACs, party committees, campaigns and related political groups, e.g. announcements of candidacy, formation of exploratory and joint fundraising committees, statements of organization, periodic and amended filings detailing contributions received, expenditures made and transfers of funds to other committees and candidates, and independent expenditures made for or against specific candidates.
Administrative and financial information reported to the IRS by non-profit 527 organizations, including applications for and notifications/revocations of 527 status, periodic and amended filings reporting contributions received and expenditures made and violation notices.
Disclosures reported by members of Congress to the House and Senate, including personal finances, government-funded travel and privately funded-travel, as well as new registrations and financial reports by lobbying firms and individual lobbyists.
Filings by cabinet officers and other senior administration officials to the Office of Government Ethics disclosing personal finances and efforts made to prevent conflicts of interest.
Filings by the chief justice and associate justices of the Supreme Court to the Administrative Office of the United States Courts regarding personal finances.

Other content is included at the discretion of the editors whenever they feel it is significantly related to the mission of the CQ MoneyLine service. This content may include filing schedules, official reports and related reference materials.

How often is the information on the site updated?

Information from government agencies is posted to the site as it is released or otherwise made available to the public by the source agency. These agencies, in turn, generally release information on specific filings anywhere from a few minutes to several days after the filing has been received. Although some filings are made and released on a daily basis, most filings are periodic, being required on a monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual basis depending on the agency and the type of information covered by the filing. In these cases, the information contained in filings is typically posted to CQ MoneyLine within several days of the filing deadline.

Because specific filing dates vary from year to year, CQ MoneyLine provides a calendar of upcoming filing deadlines for your convenience. However, not all the filings due on any given date will be submitted on that date. Committees, candidates, 527 groups and others often file days, weeks even months late, and amended reports and disclosures may be filed at any time.

Other content selected by the editors — filing calendars, reference files, etc. — will be updated as necessary.

How does the information available in CQ MoneyLine compare to the information that was in CQ PoliticalMoneyLine?

Although CQ MoneyLine generally has the same content as PoliticalMoneyLine, the new and simplified organization of CQ MoneyLine means that content is now accessed in a completely different way than on the old site. The following chart compares the access locations for the most popular features of the old site with those of the new site.

Information Previously Accessed from the Left Rail on PoliticalMoneyLine
PoliticalMoneyLine feature	Location on CQ MoneyLine
Candidates
• US House Sen and Pres Campaigns	• Candidate landing page - Candidate search tool (top of the page) [go there now]
• Pick a State (view federal races in a state - on Candidate search page)	• Candidate landing page - View financial summaries by race - state [go there now]
• Presidential Races	• Candidate landing page - View financial summaries by race - presidential [go there now]
• Incumbent Presidents	• Federal Documents - Presidential Financial Disclosures (Right Rail)
• Candidate $ Leaders (top ten boxes)	• Candidate landing page - House, Senate and President top ten content boxes [go there now]
• Top $$$ In All Categories	• Candidate landing page -- Candidate money leaders [go there now]
• Travel - Gov't Paid	• Candidate landing page - Rankings and reports [go there now] • Candidate profile pages
• Travel Privately Paid	• Candidate landing page - Rankings and reports [go there now] • Candidate profile pages
• Browse travel by destination, sponsor organization, or member	• PAC or Candidate profile pages
Disbursements
• Search Payments Made (find disbursements payee, purpose, and state	• Campaign finance lookup tool - Disbursements [go there now]
Donors
• Donor Name Lookup	• Campaign finance lookup tool - Individual donor search [go there now]
• Donor Zip Lookup	• Campaign finance lookup tool - Individual donor search [go there now]
• Employer/Occupation Lookup	• Campaign finance lookup tool - Individual donor search [go there now]
• Out of State Donors (tool to search both on donor state and candidate state)	• Campaign finance lookup tool - Individual donor search [go there now]
PACs and Parties
• PAC / Party Profiles	• PACs, Parties and 527s landing page [go there now]
• Party Summary Figures	• PACs, Parties and 527s landing page - View financial summaries - National Party Committees [go there now]
• Industry $ Totals	• PACs, Parties and 527s landing page - PAC contributors by industry box [go there now]
• New Corp PACs	• PACs, Parties and 527s landing page - New Corporate PACs content box [go there now]
• 2006 Cycle Independent Expenditures Made By Cmte	• PACs, Parties and 527s landing page - Automated Reports - Independent Expenditures by Candidate [go there now]
• 2006 Cycle Independent Expenditures Made By State	• PACs, Parties and 527s landing page - Automated Reports - Independent Expenditures by State [go there now]
• Labor Union $	• PACs, Parties and 527s landing page - Automated Reports - Independent Expenditures by State [go there now]
• FARA Database (link to DOJ website)	• Federal Documents - Foreign Agents Registration Act Database (Main Page Right Rail)
• Supreme Court Financial Disclosure	• Federal Documents - Supreme Court Financial Disclosures (Main Page Right Rail)

Information Previously Accessed from the Right Rail on PoliticalMoneyLine
PoliticalMoneyLine feature	Location on CQ MoneyLine
IRS 527 Filers
• 2000 Cycle through 2008 Cycle	• PACs, Parties and 527s landing page -Automated reports -- 527 organizations ranked by receipts [go there now]
Donor Geography
• 2004 Cycle through 2008 Cycle	• Campaign finance lookup tool - individual donor search by city, state, zip [go there now]
Lobby Directory
• Lobbyists, Firms & Organizations	• Lobby landing page - Search lobbyists/firms/clients [go there now]
• Former members	• Lobby landing Page - The Revolving Door: Members of Congress Turned Lobbyists (Right Rail) [go there now]
Leadership PACs
• Top Donors to Leadership PACs	• Candidate landing page - Automated Reports - Top Donors to Leadership PACs [go there now]
Reporters' Tips
• SEER 2000 through SEER 2008	• Campaign Finance Lookup Tool - Individual search by employer/occupation go there now]
• Next Reports Due	• Quick Reference - Filings Calendar (Right Rail)
• CRS Reports	• Quick Reference - Campaign Finance CRS Reports (Right Rail)
• PACRONYMS	• Quick Reference - FEC List of PACRONYMS (Right Rail)

Is CQ MoneyLine automatically included in my CQ.com subscription?

For a brief complimentary access period, CQ MoneyLine will be available free to all CQ.com subscribers. After this period ends, to continue having access to MoneyLine you will need to subscribe at an additional fee. Contact your sales representative or account manager for details.

If I'm a current PoliticalMoneyLine subscriber, how can I get access to information on CQ.com?

To gain access to the information and services on CQ.com you will need to subscribe at an additional fee. Contact your sales representative at 202 419 8599 or trials@cq.com for details and to arrange for a free trial.

How do I access CQ MoneyLine?

If you subscribe to CQ.com or to any other CQ subscription site, you can get to CQ MoneyLine by clicking the link which appears in the "My Subscription" section of the MyCQ Tab, or by selecting CQ MoneyLine from the "Jump to a Publication" dropdown list in the upper left hand corner of most pages. Or simply point your browser to moneyline.cq.com

How do I search for financial profiles?

CQ MoneyLine does not use the same search engine as CQ.com. Because some of the search features are available to the general public, and because the search engine needs to search millions of individual records, a different system had to be implemented. Whenever possible, we have attempted to add search features that will make sense to CQ.com subscribers.

Boolean Search Logic

Each of these Boolean searches works on CQ MoneyLine and produce the results you are used to seeing on CQ.com.

Enter...	To receive documents that contain...
"life insurance"	this phrase exactly as you entered it
life insurance life and insurance	both words, together or apart, in any order
life or insurance life, insurance	either word, but not necessarily both
life not insurance	all instances of the first word, except those that include the second word
life and (insurance or annuity)	either of the words in parentheses, and also the other word. The parentheses take precedence over the "and" connector
life and insurance or annuity	both the word life and the word insurance, or the word annuity. The "and" connector takes precedence over the "or" connector

Case Insensitive

All searches on CQML are case insensitive. A search on: AmErIcA will find: america, America, AMERICA, etc... This is important because many names and titles are shows as they are provided to the FEC, IRS or other federal agency by the filing organization. This means that names often appear with varying standards of capitalization depending on what the filer chooses to submit.

Wildcards–Asterisks and Question Marks

Use the asterisk(*) when you want to retrieve all words having the characters you enter followed by any other characters. The asterisk will work on CQML in all cases where it is used to truncate the end of a word, but it will not work when used to truncate the beginning of a word. Question marks (?) have a similar function, but permit retrieval of documents with only a specified number of characters one character per question mark. Wildcards do not work inside quotation marks.

Because the search engine treats most punctuation as spaces (see below), an asterisk cannot be used to truncate a word with a hyphen or slash in it. (i.e.: wal* will not find Wal-Mart Stores PAC)

Example	Definition	Your search will retrieve
123?	One ? allows ONE character to append	1231, 1232, 1233, 123a and anything with 123 as the first three of four characters
tax??	Two ??s allows TWO characters to append	taxes, taxed, taxis and any other words having tax as the first three letters plus two more letters
tax*	* allows ANY number of characters to append	tax, taxidermy, taxation, taxing, taxes, taxi, taxicabs and anything with tax as the first three letters

Commas as 'or' connectors

Like CQ.com, the MoneyLine search engine interprets a comma as an 'or' connector. You can search for multiple zip codes, for example, by entering: 20001, 20002, 20003. Keep in mind that if you are used to searching with the format "last name comma first name," your search will be looking for last name OR first name. This will not give you the results you expect. Rather than searching for: "Magner, Jeremy", construct your search as "Jeremy Magner." This is true even in cases where the form instructs the filer to enter their name as "last name comma first name".

Other punctuation

To simplify searching, many punctuation marks are dropped while searching in CQML. The hyphen, slash, ' and " are all treated as a space by the CQML search engine. This can be beneficial when searching the individual donor employee/occupation field, where dropping the slash allows users to search for either the occupation or the employer as they see fit (rather than having to search the full string).

Stemming

The search engine behind CQML is less sophisticated about stemming than the CQ.com search engine. However, it does still stem a number of basic formations. Examples of these are included below, although a complete list is not available. With the simpler stemming algorithm there will always be cases where it does not find every possible stem or it finds stems that it should not. Stemming cannot be turned off.

- adding 's' onto the end of nouns

- adding 'er', 'ed', 'ing', 'tion', and 'ion'

Did you mean?

The site does not support 'Did you mean?' spelling correction like CQ.com does.

STOP Words excluded form searches

STOP words: and, will, their, then, there, these, that, they, a, but, for, the, of, no, into, be, an, with, not, by, on, at, was, to, such, it, if, are, is, this (and their stemmed variants, like: been, are, were) are now excluded from searches unless included in phrases

The Campaign Finance Lookup Tool Basics

In addition to the keyword searching you are used to from CQ.com, there are a number of options in the Campaign Finance Lookup Tool that provide for relational searching by different criteria. This system will allow users to essentially write their own queries and decide what data is important to them. However, not all combinations of data with this tool will make sense. When certain choices are made in the first box on the tool, it will preclude choices that would not produce valid hits in other boxes.

For multiple row queries on the Campaign Finance Lookup Tool it will probably be necessary to understand the logic behind what you are asking for.

Box 1 Options

Individual donor
PAC/party/527 as donor
PAC/party/527 as recipient
Candidate as recipient
Disbursement
Sponsored travel
Independent expenditure

The first four options each represent one side of a transaction (either from an individual to an organization or from one organization to another). These four options can always be used together. If you chose any of them for Box one and then add another line to the lookup tool, you will see that you can use that line to specify information about any of the other four.

The other three options -- disbursements, travel, and independent expenditures -- cannot be combined with any other options because they are fundamentally different kinds of data and would not produce sensible results.

With the four options that combine together (or with any of the seven options individually) you can always specify as many characteristics as you want about the type of transaction you are looking for. Just use the plus sign to ad another row with the same box 1 value, and then add on another characteristic (make sure the Boolean connector is set to 'and'). This will refine your search to a more limited group. To add on another group of transactions that you are interested in, use the 'or' operator.

Using 'or,' 'and' and 'not' on multiple row queries

In designing the lookup tool, we wanted to err on the side of giving you as many options as possible rather than eliminating any chance of an error message. The difference between an 'and' and an 'or' in a multiple-row query can be the difference between getting the results you are looking for and getting an error message.

For example, when searching independent expenditures, you can select 'in support of' a candidate in the first row, and select 'in opposition to' the same candidate in the second row. Combine these rows with an 'or,' and you will find all independent expenditures made for or against that candidate. But, combine those rows with an 'and,' and you will get an error message -- Each independent expenditure fits into one category or another, but none can be both for and against the same candidate.

Using the first row to control the appearance of the results

The option chosen for the first box of the first row of the Campaign Finance Lookup Tool will determine the format of the results. If 'individual donor' or 'disbursements' are selected in the first line, then any search will return a list of individual hits of that item by the criteria specified. If any of the other option is selected on the first line, then any search will return a report with all the hits for the entity specified in the first line rolled up into one hit per organization/candidate/etc. The dollar amount for each entity will be a link to all of the individual hits for that entity.

This puts you in control of the display of the results. Say you want to see donations from PACs in Alabama to candidates in Alabama. If you select 'PAC as donor' in the first row, your results will list the PACs in Alabama that have donated to Alabama candidates, and the total amounts they have donated. If you select 'candidate as recipient' in the first row, your results will list the candidates in Alabama who have received donations from Alabama PACs, and the total amount they have received.

Downloading individual donor data in .csv format

If a search is exclusively for individual donor records, then a download data link will display on the results page. Clicking this link will allow you to access a .csv (excel) file that contains each of the rows of data. If the search returns more than 10,000 records the data download feature will stop exporting at that point.

Combining multiple rows: error message explanations & combination reference grid

There are two major ways to produce errors with the Campaign Finance Lookup Tool. The first is by specifying two types of data that are not available together. Many of these options have been removed from the lookup tool to prevent unnecessary errors. However, there are still a few options that can be selected that wont work. For example, specifying that the donor is an individual and that the donor is a PAC will produce an error because it is not possible for a donor to be both. In this case, you could still use the or option to specify that the donor is either.

Here is a breakdown of what combinations are available on the Campaign Finance Lookup Tool. When 'n/a' is listed below, the tool does not allow you to combine the two values.

What combinations get results on the Campaign Finance Lookup Tool?
	Individual donor	PAC/ party/ 527 as donor	PAC/ party/ 527 as recipient	Candidate as recipient	Disbursement	Sponsored Travel	Independent Expenditure
Individual donor	All okay	and - error C or - okay	All okay	All okay	n/a	n/a	n/a
PAC/ party/ 527 as donor	and - error C or - error A	All okay	and - okay or - error B	and - okay or - error	n/a	n/a	n/a
PAC/ party/ 527 as recipient	and - okay or - error A	and - okay or - error B	All okay	and - error or - okay	n/a	n/a	n/a
Candidate as recipient	and - okay or - error B	and - okay or - error B	and - error B or - okay	All okay	n/a	n/a	n/a
Disbursement	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	All okay	n/a	n/a
Sponsored Travel	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	All okay	n/a
Independent Expenditure	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	All okay

Error message A says:

We're sorry, we cannot show campaign finance search results based on the criteria you specified.

Error message B says:

We're sorry, but the criteria you specified will result in mixed results that can be confusing or misleading. Your search criteria could be interpreted in different ways and therefore, the results would be ambiguous.

Error message C says:

Searching campaign finance transactions with individual donor criteria and organization donor (PAC or 527) criteria mixed with "and" will result in no data since a transaction cannot be from both an individual AND an organization at the same time.

Specifying multiple values for a row

The second common error type will come from specifying two values in the same data field with the 'and' option. Most fields in campaign finance data only have one value (ie: individual donor city can only be 'New York', it cant be both 'New York' and 'Boston'). In the cases of this error a standard 'no results' message will display, since there is no data set that meets those criteria.

Box 2 Options

The following values are available for box 2.

Individual donor options:

Name (box 4 is text entry)
Zip code (box 4 is text entry)
State (box 4 is select list)
City (box 4 is text entry)
Employer/occupation (box 4 is text entry)

PAC/party/527 as donor and PAC/party/527 as recipient options:

Name (box 4 is text entry)
Industry classification (box 4 is select list)
State (box 4 is select list)
National Party Committees (box 4 is select list)
Politician PACs
Corporate PACs
Labor Union PACs
Membership PACs

Candidate as recipient options:

Candidate name (box 4 is text entry)
Candidate seat (box 4 is select list)
Candidate state (box 4 is select list)

Disbursement options:

PAC/Candidate (box 4 is text entry)
Payee (box 4 is text entry)
Purpose (box 4 is text entry)
Payee state (box 4 is select list)

Independent expenditure options:

In support of candidate (box 4 is text entry)
In opposition to candidate (box 4 is text entry)
PAC/Party (box 4 is text entry)
State (box 4 is select list)
Seat (box 4 is select list)

What information is on the CQ MoneyLine front page?

The front page contains news briefs covering the latest developments in campiagn finance, lobbying and issues involving government ethics, links to a variety of reference sources and the campaign finance lookup tools.

What are my search options on the front page?

The campaign finance lookup tool enables you to search for information on campaign contributions, committee disbursements, independent expenditures and sponsored travel. The lookup tools makes it easy to search by criteria such as:

Individual donors, e.g. Barbra Streisand or Rupert Murdoch
Candidates receiving the contributions, e.g Barak Obama or Tom Tancredo
Contributions to PACs, party committees and 527 groups, e.g. BANKPAC, the Republican National Committee or America Votes

What information is on the PACs/Party Committees/527 Groups page?

The page features a PAC/Party/527 lookup tool, a specialized browse tool that allows you to display financial summaries for various types of PACS (labor union PACs, political PACs and 527s, national party committees, etc.), and a series of continuously updated reports. These reports include:

Latest PAC e-filings
Newest corporate PACs
PACs that have received the most money during the current election cycle
Top PACs, candidates and party committees (based on total contributions)
PAC contributions by industry

What are my search options on the PACs/Parties/527 Groups page?

The PACs, parties and 527s lookup tool allows you to find financial data for any PAC, party committee or 527 for any election cycle back to 1980 simply by selecting the cycle and entering all or part of the committee's name, e.g. BANKPAC, Obama; GoPAC, America Votes, etc.

What information is on the Candidates page?

The page features a candidates lookup tool, a specialized browse tool and a series of continuously updated reports. These reports include:

Candidate fundraising leaders
Latest candidate electronic filings
Top Ten House candidates receipts
Top Ten Senate candidates receipts
Top Ten presidential candidate receipts

The candidates page also features links to additional rankings and reports. These additional features include:

What are my search options on the Candidates page?

The candidates lookup tool allows you to find financial data for any presidential or congressional candidate for any election cycle simply by selecting the cycle and entering all or part of the candidate's's name, e.g. Hillary Clinton, Guiliani, Kerry, George W Bush, etc.

What information is on the Lobbying page?

The page features a lobbying lookup tool, a specialized browse tool that allows you to browse all individual lobbyists, lobbying firms and their clients, and a series of continuously updated reports. These reports include:

Top spending organizations on lobbyists
Spending on federal lobbying (Spending by industry on federal lobbying)
Top Ten House candidates receipts
Top Ten Senate candidates receipts
Top Ten presidential candidate receipts

What are my search options on the Lobbying page?

The Lobbying page allows you to search for any lobbying firm, individual lobbyist or client by name, industry or date of registration.

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