Method

What this method covers

How Dark Money Map reads California campaign-finance, lobbying and legislative records. For the purpose of the project, see About.

Sources and record matching

The campaign data comes from the California Secretary of State’s CAL-ACCESS extracts. The graph combines the current-session bills and published positions with selected campaign filing sets and public lobbying disclosures. The exact campaign thresholds are listed in Known limitations. The published site serves a saved snapshot rather than a live feed of every new filing.

Records retain public identifiers and source links where available. Committee identifiers distinguish similarly named filers. Candidate and legislator records are joined through a reviewed name crosswalk, not a shared surname alone. Separate roles, such as a candidate and that person’s donor record, can remain separate nodes.

Amounts and relationship types

Campaign finance

Committee receipts are calendar-year contributions received through the latest included Form 460 statement date, not cash on hand. Itemized donors explain those receipts and are not counted again as additional funding. Later contributions are checked against the statement period to avoid counting the same money twice. Independent expenditures are identified separately as support or opposition.

Lobbying and legislation

A lobbying payment connects the disclosed payer and recipient. A legislative position connects an organization and a bill, retaining dated or conditional wording where supplied. Representation, payments and positions remain different relationship types even when they involve the same organization.

Estimated lobbying behind a bill

Some bill records show an estimate, marked with an asterisk, of the lobbying money associated with the organizations on each side, and for each of those organizations. For each quarter since 2025, each piece of an employer’s reported lobbying spend is divided evenly across the bills and state agency actions named in the report that describes it: a lobbying firm’s payment across the actions on that firm’s own activity line for the client, and in-house lobbyist pay, with any firm payment no line describes, across the actions in the employer’s own report. Each bill’s share is placed on the side of that organization’s latest filed position, or under no position on file. Money whose report names no bill or agency stays unallocated, and activity expenses and other payments are not included.

The estimate is a calculation, not a filed figure. Its coverage depends on how many organizations name bills in their lobbying reports and can be matched to a filed position, so organizations with no position found may include ones not yet matched. It does not establish that money was spent on the bill or changed a vote, and a bill with no estimate may still have been lobbied.

Coverage and limitations

The public view is a selected California state dataset, not a statewide total of all political activity. Reporting periods differ across records. Transaction thresholds and limits on displayed donors mean that a visible neighborhood may show only part of a committee’s activity. Federal, municipal and undisclosed-donor coverage are not connected.

Amendments can change earlier figures, and filer-supplied names can be inconsistent. A missing connection does not establish that no relationship exists. A reported contribution, payment or position also does not establish motive, coordination or an effect on a vote. Check the original filing and its reporting period before drawing conclusions.

Reading a connection chain

The map’s Connect tool finds chains between two records, for example a donor, the committee it gave to, and a candidate that committee reported spending against. Each step in a chain is a separately reported record with its own amount, date and source link. A chain is a set of filings placed side by side, not a claim that the same dollars moved along it.

Itemized sources

Committees report their largest itemized contributors on Form 460. The map keeps those contributors as searchable records even when they are not drawn on the canvas, and shows them with a dashed outline when they appear in a chain. Their amounts are already included in the committee’s receipt total and must not be added to it.

Possible same entity

Campaign filings and lobbying filings are separate systems, so one organization can appear under two spellings. When two names match after normalization, the map draws a dashed gray link labeled possible same entity. Treat it as a lead to verify against the filings, not as an established fact.

What a chain does not show

A contribution does not establish why the donor gave. A lobbying payment does not establish which bill it concerned. A position on a bill carries no dollar amount and does not establish an outcome. Check each source link, note its reporting period, and cite the filing rather than the map when the claim matters.

Corrections

To report an error, send the record link or identifier, the relevant public filing and a description of the discrepancy. Specify whether the issue concerns the source filing, the imported amount or identity, or the article’s interpretation.