Colorado Politics Map

Colorado Politics Map is a free tool for exploring how money, people, and organizations connect across Colorado politics — politicians, companies, PACs, lobbyists, and the bills they work on. Search for any name to start building a map of the connections around it.

How connections are made

Most connections are exactly what one filing says: a committee reports a gift it received or a payment it made, a lobbyist reports a client. A filing names the other side in words, and the map attaches that name to a record. Where a link takes more than one filing, or a judgment, it is one of these, and the map says so wherever it is used:

• Who filed a transaction. Each donation, payment and loan says whose report it comes from: Filed by the recipient (the gifts a committee reports receiving) or Filed by the giver (the payments a committee reports making). A federal gift from one committee to another says Filed with the FEC instead: the FEC publishes a committee’s gifts to candidates from the giver’s report and other committee gifts from the recipient’s, and which one a transaction came from is not recorded here. When the record a filing is attached to has a different name, the transaction also shows the name exactly as filed.
• One gift, filed by both sides. A gift from one committee to another is usually reported twice, by the giver and by the recipient. The two are paired when the amount is the same and the dates fall anywhere from the same day to the same election cycle, or, within 30 days, when the recipient filed it under a close name or under a renamed committee’s other record, so the gift counts once. A fixed rule decides. Look for Also filed by the giver … (matched: same day) under a transaction; the words after “matched” say how close the two filings were.
• Committees that share a name. When several registered committees have the same name, a gift paid to that name goes to the registration that reported receiving it (same payer and amount, within 30 days); with no such receipt, to the one whose committee type and registration year fit (for an FEC registration, its committee type alone). A fixed rule decides, and the latest reason is recorded. Look for Moved to this registration by receipt evidence, Placed on this registration by committee type and registration year or, for an FEC registration, Placed on this registration by committee type under a transaction.
• Organisations. Registrations of one organisation are shown side by side, each with its own figures, never added together. They are grouped because the same name is registered at TRACER and the FEC (a fixed rule), because their FEC registrations name the same sponsor (a reviewed match, below), or by hand, with a note saying why. Look for Part of … at the top of a committee or company page, the reason under its cards, and the dotted Same organisation (grouped, not money) line on the map.
• Committee sponsors. A federal PAC’s FEC registration names its sponsoring organisation in words. Linking that name to a company record is a reviewed match, decided by a person or by an automated review that acts only when it is confident and a second check agrees. Look for Reviewed match or pending review beside the sponsor on a committee page, and the Committee sponsor line on the map.
• Duplicate records. Two records of the same person or organisation are combined into one. Names that differ only in capitals, punctuation or a leading “The” are combined automatically; anything else only after review by a person or by the automated review, and a different legal form (Inc. against LLC, say) never automatically. Each transaction still shows the name as it was filed.
• Nonprofits and their grants. Colorado’s tax-exempt organisations come from the IRS list of exempt organisations, and their grants from the Form 990 returns the IRS publishes; both are read once a month. A Grant line joins two organisations only when the return gives the recipient’s EIN and that EIN is on the Colorado list; every other recipient is listed on the giver’s page but not drawn. Where a return was amended or filed again, the latest return read counts, and the earlier ones are listed under it as earlier versions. Grants approved for later years are listed, never added to a total. An organisation appears as a business record only after a person has reviewed that the IRS record and the business record are the same organisation (same name, same city); until then it has its own Nonprofit (IRS) record.
• Employees and people. Employee donations add up gifts whose filed employer is matched to a company, by name or by review; they are not the company’s own money. A Same person line joins two records of one person after review.

Sources and how often they update

Each source’s newest record on file, and how often it is read. A source whose last scheduled update did not complete on time says so.

• TRACER (Colorado campaign finance), FEC filings, Colorado lobbyist disclosures, the General Assembly and LegiScan, the Colorado business registry, and the IRS lists of exempt organisations and their Form 990 returns.

New to the tool? Start with How to Use for a quick walkthrough, or jump straight into the search bar and start exploring.