I took a look and noticed that over 60% of committees don't have a political party specified (committee_party field is blank). Are most committees registered without a party, or is this some sort of data error ?
\r\nThere're also about 10 committees registered as DEM/REP but suppporting REP/DEM candidates (I'm ignoring other parties for this), I guess these are party defections and they never bothered to update their committee registrations ?
", "messages": [ { "id": "14794", "postDate": "09/25/2012 17:07:16", "content": "I took a look and noticed that over 60% of committees don't have a political party specified (committee_party field is blank). Are most committees registered without a party, or is this some sort of data error ?
\r\nThere're also about 10 committees registered as DEM/REP but suppporting REP/DEM candidates (I'm ignoring other parties for this), I guess these are party defections and they never bothered to update their committee registrations ?
", "rawMarkdown": "", "votes": null }, { "id": "14795", "postDate": "09/25/2012 17:08:39", "content": "Good catch! Most committees aren't registered with a party. They may include PACs and other groups that might favor one party in practice but don't have to register as such according to FEC rules.
", "rawMarkdown": "", "votes": null }, { "id": "14807", "postDate": "09/25/2012 19:05:14", "content": "Republicans have about 1/3 more candidates and committees than Democrats. Is this real ? More of the 'no-party' committees may be Democratic committees, but it doesn't explain the difference in number of candidates.
", "rawMarkdown": "", "votes": null }, { "id": "14810", "postDate": "09/25/2012 19:29:59", "content": "Looks like that's true, at least as best as I can quickly verify using the FEC's searchable forms: http://fec.gov/portal/searchable.shtml
\r\nOff the top of my head, I can't think of a single phenomenon that would explain the difference, but there are a few trends that could contribute. For one, the political press has talked a lot about how the Republican apparatus of PACs and other non-candidate\r\n committees has ben substantially more active than the Democrats'.
\r\nOn the candidate committee front, it could be that Republican candidates have had more crowded primaries this cycle (thus leading to more candidate committees). I hadn't thought of this until you brought it up, but this could actually be reflective of the\r\n much-talked-about divisions that have popped up within the party. A moderate Republican that used to be a clear establishment choice might now have to face off against Tea Party and quasi-libertarian candidates in a primary. Common wisdom suggests that phenomenon\r\n isn't happening as much on the Democratic side, though I admittedly haven't analyzed it to find out.
\r\nIn any case, I'm not too surprised by the disparity. But that's could be an interesting trend I haven't seen a lot of reporting on. Good catch!
", "rawMarkdown": "", "votes": null }, { "id": "14827", "postDate": "09/26/2012 04:59:22", "content": "Amendment Indicators
\r\nThere're 3 kinds: N, A, and T. I guess N and A are New and Amendment, but what are T types ?
\r\nFor the A type, how do you find out which record it is amending ? Or is it a flag that says the record itself has been amended ?
", "rawMarkdown": "", "votes": null } ], "comments": [ { "id": 14795, "author_name": "cjdd3b", "author_url": "", "post_date": "09/25/2012 17:08:39", "content": "Good catch! Most committees aren't registered with a party. They may include PACs and other groups that might favor one party in practice but don't have to register as such according to FEC rules.
", "votes": null, "replies": [] }, { "id": 14807, "author_name": "byang1", "author_url": "", "post_date": "09/25/2012 19:05:14", "content": "Republicans have about 1/3 more candidates and committees than Democrats. Is this real ? More of the 'no-party' committees may be Democratic committees, but it doesn't explain the difference in number of candidates.
", "votes": null, "replies": [] }, { "id": 14810, "author_name": "cjdd3b", "author_url": "", "post_date": "09/25/2012 19:29:59", "content": "Looks like that's true, at least as best as I can quickly verify using the FEC's searchable forms: http://fec.gov/portal/searchable.shtml
\r\nOff the top of my head, I can't think of a single phenomenon that would explain the difference, but there are a few trends that could contribute. For one, the political press has talked a lot about how the Republican apparatus of PACs and other non-candidate\r\n committees has ben substantially more active than the Democrats'.
\r\nOn the candidate committee front, it could be that Republican candidates have had more crowded primaries this cycle (thus leading to more candidate committees). I hadn't thought of this until you brought it up, but this could actually be reflective of the\r\n much-talked-about divisions that have popped up within the party. A moderate Republican that used to be a clear establishment choice might now have to face off against Tea Party and quasi-libertarian candidates in a primary. Common wisdom suggests that phenomenon\r\n isn't happening as much on the Democratic side, though I admittedly haven't analyzed it to find out.
\r\nIn any case, I'm not too surprised by the disparity. But that's could be an interesting trend I haven't seen a lot of reporting on. Good catch!
", "votes": null, "replies": [] }, { "id": 14827, "author_name": "byang1", "author_url": "", "post_date": "09/26/2012 04:59:22", "content": "Amendment Indicators
\r\nThere're 3 kinds: N, A, and T. I guess N and A are New and Amendment, but what are T types ?
\r\nFor the A type, how do you find out which record it is amending ? Or is it a flag that says the record itself has been amended ?
", "votes": null, "replies": [] } ], "raw_markdown_by_id": { "14794": "", "14795": "", "14807": "", "14810": "", "14827": "" }, "source": "meta" }