Campaign Expenditures in the United States, 1983/1984: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Data

<p>These data are made available by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and are taken directly from campaign finance reports filed by candidates, political committees, and others required to file under the federal election laws. The files are essentially copies of the FEC's on-line computer files for the 1983-1984 election cycle. The Candidate Master File (Part 1) contains a record for each registered candidate for federal office. It includes the candidate's name, address, party affiliation, incumbent/challenger status, identification number of the principal campaign committee, office sought, and election year. The Committee Master File (Part 2) contains a record for each registered committee for federal office. Information provided includes the committee's identification number, name, address, treasurer's name, committee designation and type, party affiliation, report filing frequency, special interest group category and connected organization's name, and multicandidate committee status. The Detailed Report File (Part 3) contains one record for each separate reporting period for each FEC committee and, as such, is the source for longitudinal information about committee financial activity during the 1983-1984 election cycle. Information presented in the file includes the political committee identification number, the report year and type, the time period covered by the report, total receipts and disbursements, beginning and end cash balances, debts owed by and to the committee, individual, political, and candidate contributions, transfers from affiliated committees, loans received and payments made, and refunds. The Itemized PAC Contribution File (Part 4) contains one record for each type of contributor for each reporting period. Information covered in this file includes the type and year of the report, the time period covered by the report, total contributions, net contributions, total contribution refunds, net operating expenditures, cash on hand, debts and obligations owed by the committee, debts and obligations owed to the committee, contributions from individuals, and loans made or guaranteed by the candidate. (Source: downloaded from ICPSR 7/13/10)</p>
<p><strong>Please Note</strong>: This dataset is part of the historical CISER Data Archive Collection and is also available at ICPSR at <a href="https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09313.v2">https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09313.v2</a>. We highly recommend using the ICPSR version as they may make this dataset available in multiple data formats in the future.</p>

本数据集由美国联邦选举委员会（Federal Election Commission, FEC）依据《信息自由法案》（Freedom of Information Act, FOIA）对外公开，所有数据直接取自候选人、政治委员会及其他依照联邦选举法律要求需提交申报文件的主体所提交的竞选财务报告。本数据集本质为1983-1984年选举周期内FEC在线计算机文件的复刻副本。

候选人主文件（第1部分）收录每位联邦公职登记候选人的专属记录，包含候选人姓名、通讯地址、党派归属、现任/挑战者身份、主要竞选委员会识别编号、参选职务及选举年份等信息。

委员会主文件（第2部分）收录每位联邦公职登记委员会的专属记录，所涵盖的信息包括：委员会识别编号、机构名称、通讯地址、财务主管姓名、委员会标识与类型、党派归属、报告提交频率、特殊利益团体类别及关联组织名称，以及多候选人委员会身份标识。

详细报告文件（第3部分）对应FEC各委员会的每个独立报告周期生成一条记录，是该1983-1984年选举周期内委员会财务活动纵向追踪信息的核心来源。文件包含的信息包括：政治委员会识别编号、报告年份与类型、报告覆盖时段、总收入与总支出、期初与期末现金余额、委员会所欠及被委员会所追偿的债务、个人、政治组织及候选人捐款、关联委员会转账、获得的贷款及还款、退款等。

分项政治行动委员会（Political Action Committee, PAC）捐款文件（第4部分）对应每个报告周期内每类捐款主体生成一条记录，涵盖的信息包括：报告类型与年份、报告覆盖时段、捐款总额、净捐款额、捐款退款总额、净运营支出、手头现金、委员会所欠债务与义务、被委员会所主张的债权与义务、个人捐款，以及候选人提供或担保的贷款。本数据集来源：2010年7月13日从ICPSR下载。

请注意：本数据集隶属于历史CISER数据档案馆藏，同时可在ICPSR平台获取，获取链接为https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09313.v2。我们强烈建议使用ICPSR官方版本，因其未来可能推出该数据集的多种数据格式以供使用。