Methodology, Entity Resolution & Statutory Guardrails
1. Primary Public Data Sources & Statutory Guardrails
| Source Agency / Dataset | Forms & Bulk Files Ingested | Coverage Window | Statutory Guardrail & Deduplication Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nebraska Accountability & Disclosure Commission (NADC) | Forms A-1, B-1AB/C/D, B-2A/B, B-4A/B1/B3, B-5, B-7, B-9, and Lobbyist/Principal (`lforma/b/c`) | 1999–2026 (25,117 rcpts, 20,683 exps in 2018) | Neb. Rev. Stat. § 49-14,132: Non-commercial public-interest research; individual contributor names suppressed into “Individuals (aggregate)”. |
| Federal Election Commission (FEC) | Committee master (`cm`), candidate linkage (`ccl`), `webl`, `webk`, `oth`/`pas2`, Schedule E IEs, ActBlue (`C00401224`) | 2016–Present cycles | 52 U.S.C. § 30111(a)(4): Sale or commercial use of contributor data prohibited; ActBlue conduit earmarks deduplicated and ZIP3 cells < 5 donors suppressed. |
| IRS Exempt Organizations BMF & Form 990 XML | 56+ state/regional IRS BMF extracts (1.9M+ EINs) + electronic Form 990 Schedule I & Schedule C XML filings | TY 2016–2024 + current BMF | 990 Schedule I grants are labeled final use undisclosed and never conflated with earmarked NADC/FEC campaign contributions. |
| USAspending.gov Federal Assistance API | Federal grant and cooperative agreement awards (assistance types 02–05) to Nebraska recipients | FY 2015–Present | 31 U.S.C. § 1352 (Byrd Amendment): Federal grants cannot be used for lobbying or campaign intervention; shown as distinct public stream. |
Network funding badges (DSA)
A tiny DSA logo icon appears next to a candidate only when NADC or FEC filings in Plains Ledger data show money from a committee registered as part of the Democratic Socialists of America (the national DSA PAC, its national IE filer, or a chapter committee, each listed by FEC/NADC ID in data/affiliation_badges.json) to that candidate. Counted: direct contributions, in-kind contributions, and independent expenditures supporting the candidate. Spending that opposes a candidate never creates a badge. Any documented amount above $0 qualifies, and each badge links to the filing behind it.
Only organizations are counted, never individual donors. Endorsements, voter guides, rhetoric, social media, and inference are not used. A committee whose name resembles a network but whose ID is not on the verified list is shown as a flagged name-only match in the candidate’s Affiliation details and does not get a badge. Party committees and conduits (ActBlue, WinRed, Anedot) are excluded. As of this update, no Nebraska candidate meets the criteria: no DSA committee appears in NADC filings, and FEC filings show no DSA contributions or supporting expenditures for Nebraska candidates. The same criteria and threshold would apply unchanged to any network added later.
The DSA logo identifies the organization named in public filings. Plains Ledger is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by DSA. A badge indicates a documented funding tie only.
Badges, tooltips, and Affiliation details are free. Filtering and sorting by network, CSV export of affiliated candidates, and alerts when a candidate newly qualifies are planned Pro features.
2. Deterministic Multi-Stage Entity Classifier & Legacy/Modern ID Bridge
Every committee, supplemental filer, contributor, expenditure payee, grant recipient, ballot measure funder, and network node across all 18 reporting periods is resolved through a deterministic multi-stage classifier (etl/classify.py + data/nadc_master_lookup.json):
- Exact EIN / FEC Committee ID / NADC Org ID Lookup: Matches against the IRS EO BMF (1.9M EINs), FEC Committee Master, and NADC Master Lookup (54,642 canonical entries bridging legacy NADC IDs like
99PAC00020, Form B-4/B-1 filing IDs likenadc-8822, and modern NADC Org IDs likenadc-7765). - NADC Filer & Contributor Type Resolution: Distinguishes Candidate committees (
C), Ballot question committees (B), Party committees (P), Separate segregated PACs, Independent PACs (I), Labor unions (501(c)(5)), Trade/business associations (501(c)(6)), Social-welfare advocacy orgs (501(c)(4)), Charitable nonprofits (501(c)(3)), Government agencies/universities, For-profit businesses, and Individual Supplemental Filers (Form B-7 / B-6). - Expenditure Payee & Purpose Classification: Classifies NADC expenditure payees and ballot/party vendors across advertising/media buyers, political strategy & polling firms, canvass/field operations, legal/compliance firms, and administrative vendors.
3. Netting Inter-Committee Transfers
NADC: A receipt is treated as an inter-committee transfer when its source type is a committee and its name matches another NADC filer; net receipts = receipts − transfers in.
FEC: net receipts = total receipts − transfers from affiliated/authorized committees (and, for PACs, contributions from other committees). Committee-to-committee edges use the giving committee's report only (memo entries and independent expenditures excluded) so each dollar appears once.
4. Reporting Periods & Single-Year vs. Cycle Scope
The global period selector offers two-year election cycles (`2016`–`2026`) and single calendar years (`y2015`–`y2026`), generated automatically from the current date each nightly refresh — off-years included. NADC 2022+ data comes from that reporting year's bulk extract; NADC 2015–2020 legacy data, FEC committee-to-committee transfers, and ActBlue earmarks are split by transaction date. Because the FEC publishes committee summary totals (`webl`/`webk`) per two-year cycle only, single-year views clearly label cycle-level FEC summary figures.
Data built 2026-10-25 08:22 CT · Period 2017-18 cycle counts: {"nadc_receipt_rows":25117,"nadc_expenditure_rows":20683,"fec_ne_committees_with_totals":76,"fec_transfer_rows":4111,"fec_actblue_earmark_rows":12980,"usaspending_raw_rows":100,"usaspending_recipients":94,"propublica_ein_links":28,"propublica_c4_sample":100,"propublica_c6_sample":100,"entities":2489,"flow_edges":4011}