Every four years, campaign finance data from the Federal Election Commission peeks its head out into the light of importance. Committees and officials must report significant contributions to campaigns, which in turn provides a view into who is on who’s side. The weird thing is that the data was oddly tough to access for an everyday user, which is why third-party APIs and news orgs were and still are the primary place to go for information.
There’s a new FEC site in beta now though. A collaboration between the FEC and 18F, it’s a lot better than undocumented files only accessible via FTP. Search, browse, and download data for a candidate or contributor.
