Glossary | Docs | Dark Money Map

Each label on a record links to its entry here. Terms are grouped by subject, and alphabetical within each group.

Records and connections

Chain: A sequence of connections leading from one record to another. A chain places separate filings side by side; it is not a claim that the same money moved along it.
Connection: A link between two records, standing for one or more separately filed records. See Connection types.
Filer ID: The number CAL-ACCESS gives a committee, lobbying firm or other filer. It keeps similarly named filers apart.
Filing ID: The number CAL-ACCESS gives a filing. Use it to find the original filing. See Check a figure against the filing.
Observation: One dated appearance of a connection in a source, such as one bill analysis listing an organization's position. A connection can group several observations.
Record: One bill, organization, lobbying firm, lobbyist, committee, PAC, candidate, ballot measure or donor. See Record types.
Snapshot: The saved copy of the public records the site serves. It is not a live feed, and filings made or amended after the snapshot date aren't in it. See Current data release.

Bills and positions

Authored bills: Bills on the map that a legislator is the author of.
Bill analysis: A document prepared for a legislative committee or floor vote that summarises a bill and lists the organizations on record supporting and opposing it. The map's positions come from these.
Estimate (*): An amount marked with an asterisk is an estimate of the lobbying money associated with a bill, not a filed figure. How it is estimated.
Neutral: An organization that filed a neutral position on a bill.
No position found: Organizations whose lobbying reports name the bill, but for which no support or oppose position was found. Either none was filed, or one was filed and has not yet been matched to the organization.
Oppose, opposes: An organization's filed position against a bill, as recorded in the Legislature's bill analyses. Oppose unless amended counts as oppose.
Support, supports: An organization's filed position in favor of a bill, as recorded in the Legislature's bill analyses. When an organization changed its position, its latest one counts. Support if amended counts as support.

Lobbying

Lobbying spend: What an organization reported spending on lobbying in its quarterly employer reports (Form 635) from the date shown: pay for its own in-house lobbyists, and payments to lobbying firms. For a quarter with no employer report, the firms' reported payments are used. It is not divided among bills; any per-bill amount is a labelled estimate.

Campaign money

Committees naming it: Committees whose campaign reports name this candidate or ballot measure, with the money they reported raising this year. A candidate's own campaign committee appears here, and so can committees formed to support or oppose. The map does not yet show which side each is on.
Donor index: The published list of itemized givers of $2,500 or more on committees' campaign statements since January 1, 2025. Their amounts are already inside the committees' receipts. See Data files.
Givers: The people and organizations a committee's campaign report names as giving to it, with how many there are and how much they gave. The list on a committee shows every giver of $2,500 or more from the donor index.
Independent expenditure: Money a committee spends to support or oppose a candidate or ballot measure without coordinating with the campaign, reported on Form 496 close to an election. See Independent spending.
Itemized source: A giver named on a campaign statement, as opposed to money reported without names.
Other itemized givers: The record that stands for a committee's itemized givers of under $5,000 each, together: how many there are, their total, and its largest 100 members. See Record types.
Late contribution: A contribution reported on Form 497, filed close to an election. It can be reported again on the committee's next full statement. See Late contribution.
Late contributions after the statement: Late contributions a committee reported receiving after the end of its last campaign statement, so no receipts total yet includes them, such as a large gift in the weeks before an election. Shown as their own figure and never added to the committee's reported receipts. For a committee with no campaign statement this year, all of its late contributions since January 1, 2025 are listed.
Money in: Money reported as received. For a committee with a campaign report this year, it is the total contributions the committee reported receiving from January 1 through the date shown. Otherwise it adds up the money reported by the connections on the map, each contribution counted once.
Money naming it: Late contributions, made close to an election and reported within a day or so, whose filing names this candidate or ballot measure. The filing does not say whether the money was for or against it.
Money out: Money reported as given to others: contributions to committees and payments to lobbying firms, from the connections on the map, each counted once.
Named: On a committee: the candidates and ballot measures its campaign reports name.
Not itemized by giver: Money a committee reported without naming who gave it, such as contributions too small to be itemized one by one.
Own campaign committee: A committee whose own campaign statement identifies it as controlled by the candidate. Its reported receipts are money raised for that candidate. Receipts of other committees that name a candidate carry no side.
Reported receipts: A committee's total contributions received in the calendar year, from the Summary Page of its latest included campaign statement. Not cash on hand. See How totals are counted.
Spent against: Independent spending in opposition to a candidate or ballot measure, reported the same way, with the side stated in the filing.
Spent for: Independent spending in support of a candidate or ballot measure: money a committee reported spending on its own, without coordinating with that campaign. The filing states which side the spending is on.
Statement period: The dates a campaign statement covers. A receipts figure runs through the end of the statement period, shown as coverage through.