FECTOOL

A free program for aiding research into campaign contributions, using imported FEC data tables, by Paul Milligan.  Includes new 'Hsu-filtering' to research ( or ignore ) the 249 'Norman Hsu Bundled donors' who got the famous $ 800,000 of refunds .

Contact :   PJM@FourCatsConsulting.com   About the author   Resume (HTML)  personal website  pmilligan.net

Download FECTOOL_Installer.exe ( 9 mb ) Ver 1.0.21       Executable only - build Ver 1.0.21    See bottom of page for rev history

NEW : Updated PDF report - Hsu_compensated_Clinton_refund_analysis.pdf  list, and analysis

Features :

• Handles the complete task sequence of getting the multiple files from the FEC.GOV website, unpacking them, converting, indexing, and normalizing them as needed, and loading them to the Database, all with one click. Includes daily updates, as well as 'complete master' updates per selected file(s).
• Complete FEC campaign contributions database, in 100 % open format (Access  MDB ) for use by others.  All free.
• Can be run as an automated scheduled process, such as on server ( or desktop ), etc, with the included BAT files.  Normalization tables included.  Primary ( clustered ) and secondary indexing included.  Easily exported to MS-SQL, MYSQL, etc.  Full documentation for developers.
• Multiple concurrent reports and queries, with detail drill-down on many of them ( by double-clicking report rows ), from summary to 3 levels deep on most reports.  Multifaceted interface handles many types of research queries.
• Multi-layer drill-down to detail levels on most reports.
• 'Finder' feature includes 8 'find someone by name' and 4 'find by reverse phone lookup' interfaces with a single entry, to help find out 'who is this person ?' , beyond the mere FEC data, integrated to the FEC data, to expand on it.
• Easy 'right-click on the grid' multi-row export to clipboard or disk file in Excel or CSV formats - perfect for pasting into spreadsheets or reports !
• No charge, no registration needed, no nags, no ads, no time-outs, no license restrictions, no gimmicks.  FREE !

          FAQ file       Readme file       'Files' help file    My personal website is WWW.PMilligan.net

Who should use FECTOOL ?

    Anyone who wants to dig deeper into the money that runs the political machine of this country.  If all you want to do is some basic queries like 'How much did so and so donate to who ?', there are excellent online resources that do that for you right now, much easier than loading and installing FECTOOL.  The purpose of FECTOOL is to allow myself, and others, to 'ask their own questions in their own way', outside of the boundaries of the options presented by other resources, and to look at things from angles that may not be readily available elsewhere.

    The official FEC search site is here.  The sites at  http://www.opensecrets.org    http://www.campaignmoney.com/   http://www.factcheck.org   http://www.ontheissues.org are all fine and valuable non-partisan sites, for instance.   There are many others, also.  Google is your friend.  No matter what Yahoo! tells you.

Screenshots :

File retrieval screen ( gets files from the FEC and loads them into the database )

Query example - People named Milligan or Rappaport, two separate query windows

Query example -  'Law firms who contributed > 5 times', by law firm, drill-down to that law firm ( by double-clicking report rows ), drill-down ( by double-clicking report rows ) to an individual showing his other contributions.  All windows stay open concurrently, and more can be opened for other queries, etc.  All can be saved to disk, exported to Excel, etc.

Query example - All contributions > $ 10,000, summarized by Committee, drill-down ( by double-clicking report rows ) to 'Transactions > $ 10,000 for a particular committee', drill-down again ( by double-clicking report rows ) to an individual's full record, who appears in the list of 'transactions > $ 10,000 for this committee'

Query example - a refinement / combination of the above two - lawyers who contributed > $ 10,000, drill-down ( by double-clicking report rows ) to law firm and lawyer detail, etc.

Query example - Where TranType = 22Y ( Refund to individual ), and where the accounting entry is a negative amount ( notice the 'TranType' search, with 'Filter by dollar range' checked ).  This is an accounting anomaly, at the very least.  A negative refund ??????  Refunds are entered as POSITIVE numbers, not NEGATIVE numbers, by FEC recording convention.  With drill-down to any particular campaign, and more drill-down to individuals.

Sample using multi-window reports - to compare various result sets, such as between candidates

Database tables diagram

Revision history

1.0.12 - first beta release

1.0.13 - added Tran Type totals by Committee query on Contributions and Committees screens

1.0.14 - enhanced 'people finder' by linking from Contributions pages and auto-filling in the search criteria, then auto-running it, for the selected contributor.  Added Google auto-link.

1.0.15 - added 'Summary for all Committees for this candidate ( or other filter, like 'Senate' or State, or both, etc ), by Tran Type' with transaction counts and totals.  3 level drill-down to 'Individual Contributor total history'.

1.0.17 - added Monthly totals and averages by candidate

1.0.21 - added Hsu filter, other good stuff.