Money drives politics, fueling the same question every election: Who’s trying to buy influence with their donations?
But finding out who funds city or county races can be a challenge if you don’t know where or what to look for.
Mark Skoglund, executive director of the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission, said voters should look for one thing: the receipt and expenditure report.
“It’s all there,” he said.
The report lists all the money given to a candidate and how the campaign spent it.
But don’t just focus on candidates. Political action committees raise and spend money on issues and candidates, filing similar campaign finance reports.
“The two can be very similar,” Skoglund said.
PACs can support more than one candidate. They must detail candidate names for contributions over $300 and report any spending on ads or signs that support or oppose a specific candidate.
Skoglund said that some people may not understand the documents.
“These reports show the money that goes into a campaign and the money that goes out,” he said. “As long as it meets the threshold, and in Kansas, that is $50 for an individual contribution, it will be found there.”
Finding the expense reports for Sedgwick County elections
To find campaign finance reports:
- Select the Sedgwick County election office on the county website. You can find it on the government tab under departments and services. Select “Filings and Report, and use the drop-down menus to search.
- Choose PAC and committee reports or candidate expense reports on the first drop-down menu.
- For PAC and committee reports, filter by description, date and year.
- For campaign expense reports, choose the year, office and candidate’s name.
Regular expense reports come out four times during an election cycle. The first one is in January at the start of the campaign year. Then, reports drop in July and October, a few weeks before the primary and general elections. A final one is released the following January to wrap things up.
Candidates must also file an extra report for any last-minute contributions over $300 made between the July and October reports and Election Day.
What should you expect to see on campaign finance reports?
The first page shows the campaign or PAC and summarizes how much it received and spent.
Both reports list individual donors and how much they gave. You can see the name of the person, business or group that contributed, their address and the amount they donated.
Kansas’ receipt and expenditure reports also ask for the donor’s occupation if the donation was more than $150.
Some reports include in-kind contributions for non-cash donations like labor, T-shirts, signage or software.
If you can’t find a campaign’s receipt and expenditure report, it’s likely the campaign filed for an exemption. Self-funded campaigns that spend less than $1,000 qualify for this.
What can you learn about who is funding Sedgwick County elections?
The reports show not just who supports a candidate but people and groups that might be hoping to have influence if they’re elected.
Check out the addresses as you look at the reports. Sometimes, groups use the same address but donate under their individual names to give more than the $500 limit for individuals.
Businesses can also donate $500. That means some people will donate the maximum amount for both themselves and their business. Addresses can also be a giveaway here.
There’s no evidence that giving money results in the donor getting special favors, Friends University Political Science Professor Russell Fox said. “What it does is show who has access to a candidate.”
And someone with access, Fox said, can sway a politician’s opinion.
“It’s really not complicated, and people should not get intimidated by the reports,” Fox said. “If someone is curious, the reports are available to anyone.”
How do you find state and federal campaign finance reports?
Both Kansas and the federal government maintain similar campaign finance dashboards.
