Money determines politics and raises the same question in every election: Who is trying to buy influence with their donations?
However, finding out who is funding city or county races can be challenging if you don’t know where or what to look.
Mark Skoglund, executive director of the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission, said voters should pay particular attention to one thing: the revenue and expenditure report.
“It’s all there,” he said.
The report lists all the money given to a candidate and how the campaign spent it.
But don’t just focus on the candidates. Political action committees raise and spend money on issues and candidates and file similar campaign finance reports.
“The two can be very similar,” Skoglund said.
PACs can support more than one candidate, and for donations over $300, they must list the names of the candidates and report any spending on ads or signs supporting or opposing a particular candidate.
Skoglund said some people may not understand the documents.
“These reports show how much money is coming into a campaign and how much money is going out,” he said. “As long as the threshold is met, and in Kansas that’s $50 for a single donation, it’s going to be there.”
Find expense reports for Sedgwick County elections
How to find campaign finance reports:
- Select the Sedgwick County Elections Office on the county website. You can find it on the Government tab under Departments and Services. Select Filings and Report and use the dropdown menus to search.
- From the first drop-down menu, select “PAC and Committee Reports” or “Candidate Expense Reports.”
- For PAC and committee reports, filter by description, date, and year.
- For the election campaign expense report, select the year, office and name of the candidate.
Regular expense reports are released four times during an election cycle. The first is in January at the start of the campaign year. Subsequent reports are released in July and October, a few weeks before the primary and general elections. A final one is released the following January to wrap things up.
Candidates must also file an additional report for any last-minute donations over $300 made between the July and October reports and Election Day.
What to expect in the campaign finance reports?
The first page shows the campaign or PAC and summarizes how much it has raised and spent.
Both reports list individual donors and their amounts. You can see the name of the person, company or group that donated, their address and the amount donated.
Kansas income and expense reports also ask for the donor’s occupation if the donation was more than $150.
Some reports include in-kind contributions such as labor, t-shirts, signage, or software.
If you can’t find a campaign’s income and expenses report, it’s probably because the campaign has applied for an exemption. Self-funded campaigns that spend less than $1,000 are eligible.
What can you learn about who funds elections in Sedgwick County?
The reports show not only who supports a candidate, but also individuals and groups who hope to have influence if elected.
Check addresses as you look at reports. Sometimes groups use the same address but donate under their own name, giving more than the $500 limit for individuals.
Businesses can also donate $500. This means that some people donate the maximum amount for themselves and their business. Addresses can also be used as a giveaway here.
There is no evidence that monetary donations give the donor any special advantages, says Russell Fox, professor of political science at Friends University. “It just shows who has access to a candidate.”
And someone with access, Fox said, can influence a politician’s opinion.
“It’s really not complicated, and people shouldn’t be intimidated by the reports,” Fox said. “If anyone is curious, the reports are available to anyone.”
How do you find campaign finance reports at the state and federal levels?
Both Kansas and the federal government have similar campaign finance dashboards.
