How To Search For Information
Search for Candidate Reports
If you'd like to look at documents filed by a
candidate:
Type the last name of the candidate, one space, and the first initial of the first
name in the FILER NAME box and click on the Send Query button. This
will take you to the Result Set page. If you don't know the first name, just
enter the last name or any portion of the candidate's name. You may enter any punctuation
(hyphen, comma, period, etc…) you like, with the exception of apostrophes. For help
with apostrophes and other punctuation marks, see Search using Punctuation Marks.
Note: An asterisk ("*") is automatically appended to the end of the name you enter.
If you'd like to narrow the search to a particular election year, you would put,
for example, "2000" in the ELECTION YEAR box. You don't need to narrow
your search any further.
Search
for Political Committee Reports
If you'd like to look at documents filed by a political
committee, party committee, local ballot committee, etc.:
Type in the name of the committee in the FILER NAME box and click on the
Send Query button. This will take you to the Result Set page. If you
don't know the committee's full name, you may enter only part of it, but it must
be the first part. (i.e. COMM FOR BETTER or see below for a list of committees).
Enter the name the way it appears on the list. You may enter any punctuation (hyphen,
comma, period, etc…) you like, with the exception of apostrophes. For help with
apostrophes and other punctuation marks, see Search using Punctuation Marks.
Note: An asterisk ("*") is automatically appended to the end of the name you enter.
If you'd like to narrow the search to a particular election year (for statewide
initiatives), you would put, for example, "1999" in the ELECTION YEAR box.
You don't need to narrow your search any further.
Note: The word committee is always abbreviated to COMM and the word citizens
is always abbreviated to CIT.
Lists of Committees:
Political Party Committees (3KB in PDF format)
Legislative Caucus Committees (3KB in PDF format)
Other Committees (443KB in PDF format)
Search for Lobbyist Reports
If you'd like to look at documents filed by a lobbyist:
Type the last name of the lobbyist, one space, and the first initial of the first
name in the FILER NAME box and click on the Send Query button. This
will take you to the Result Set page. If you don't know the first name, just
enter the last name or click here for a list of
registered lobbyists. Enter the name
the way it appears on the list. You may enter any punctuation (hyphen, comma, period,
etc…) you like, with the exception of apostrophes. For help with apostrophes and
other punctuation marks, see Search using Punctuation Marks.
Note: An asterisk ("*") is automatically appended to the end of the name you enter.
If you'd like to narrow the search to a particular type of report, you would put,
for example, "L1" in the FORM TYPE box. You don't need to narrow your
search any further.
Search for Lobbyist Employer Reports
If you'd like to look at documents filed by a lobbyist employer:
Type the name of the lobbyist employer in the FILER NAME box and click on
the Send Query button. This will take you to the Result Set page.
If you don't know the exact name, just enter part of it or click here for a list
of
lobbyist employers. Enter the name the
way it appears on the list. You may enter any punctuation (hyphen, comma, period,
etc…) you like, with the exception of apostrophes. For help with apostrophes and
other punctuation marks, see Search using Punctuation Marks.
Note: An asterisk ("*") is automatically appended to the end of the name you enter.
If you'd like to narrow the search to a particular type of report, you would put,
for example, "L3" or "L3c" in the FORM TYPE box. You don't
need to narrow your search any further.
Other Reporting Entities
Public Agency Lobbying (L5)--Enter the name of the local or state
agency in the FILER NAME box.
Grass Roots Lobbying Campaigns (L6)--Enter the name of the Initiative
to the Legislature committee or other filer in the FILER NAME box.
Reports of Employer of Legislators, State Officers or State Employees (L7)--Enter
the name of the employer in the FILER NAME box.
Out-of-State or Federal Committee Contributions (C5)--Enter the name
of the Out-of-State or Federal committee in the FILER NAME box.
Independent Expenditures (C6)--Enter the name of the spender in the
FILER NAME box.
Special Political Expenditures (C7)--Enter the name of the spender
in the FILER NAME box.
Search using Punctuation Marks
You may enter any punctuation you like, with the exception of apostrophes. If the
name you are looking for contains an apostrophe you may successfully search for
that name by entering either a question mark (character wildcard) or an asterisk
(string wildcard) in place of the apostrophe. You may use this same technique to
replace other punctuation marks as well.
Note: When you use a question mark (?) in a string of text, VIEW REPORTS
searches for documents that contain that string of text, but allows any single character
to take the place of the question mark. When you use an asterisk (*) in a string
of text, VIEW REPORTS searches for documents that contain that string of
text, but allows any number of characters or even the lack of a character to take
the place of the asterisk.
For example, if the name you are looking for is O'Malley, it may be found by entering
"O?Malley", "O?M*", or "O*".
"O?Malley" will return all entries which start with O?Malley – ex. O'Malley,
OrMalley, OtMalley, etc…
"O?M*" will return all entries which start with O?M – ex. O'Malley, Otman,
Ormsby, etc…
"O*" will return all entries that start with O – ex. O'Malley, Olsen, Obermann,
etc…
If the name you are looking for is O-Dell, it may be found by entering "O-Dell",
"O?Dell", "O?D*", or "O*"
"O-Dell" will return all entries which start with O-Dell – ex. O-Dell,
O-Dells, O-Delloman, etc…
"O?Dell" will return all entries which start with O?Dell – ex. O-Dell,
O'Dell, Ordello, etc…
"O?D*" will return all entries which start with O?D – ex. O-Dell,
O'Donnal, Oldham, etc…
"O*" will return all entries which start with O – ex. O-Dell,
Otton, Oppenheimer, etc…
Note: An asterisk ("*") is automatically appended to the end of the name you enter.
Result Set Page
What should appear at this point is a grid of the reports filed by that particular
entity (candidate, political committee, lobbyist, lobbyist employer, etc.)
in chronological order. You may re-order them by clicking on any of the available
column headers (FILER NAME, FORM TYPE, ELECTION YEAR, OFFICE SOUGHT, DATE RECEIVED,
DESCRIPTION/PARTY, BALLOT NUMBER, and LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT). For a list
of PDC forms and what they are used for, click here.
Choose the report you would like to view and click anywhere on that line. The report
should appear and you should be able to print it, or save it to disk. You will also
be able to log out, return to your previous search results, or initiate a new search
from this screen.
Note: Please remember to log out when you're done so that others can use VIEW REPORTS
as well.
For further help with VIEW REPORTS, click
View Reports User's Guide. - PDF
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