The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. Add to that more than 3,000 tipsheets from our national conferences on how to cover specific beats or do specific stories and you have a resource that no reporter or editor should be without. These stories and tipsheets are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Logged-in members can view the tipsheets free online:
Search results for "federal elections" ...
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Paying for Political Favor
A guide on how to employ websites and search engines in your investigation of political contributions and lobbying.
Tags: Federal Elections Committee; Political Contributions; Lobbying; President; Open Secret
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Getting intimate with government data to produce hard-hitting stories
Torres gives advice on how to dig into government data to leverage stories covering areas such as government budgets, contracts, payroll, campaign contributions, and elections.
Tags: government data; data; federal government; public records
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Campaign Finance: Tracking the Money
This tipsheet outlines important facts for those reporting on campaign finance and outlines information reporters should look at when analyzing campaign finance information. It also provides links to several useful sites/organizations who track campaign finance information, including some that provide data for download.It also touches on lobbying information.
Tags: campaign finance; lobbying; Federal Election Commission; FEC; PAC; political action committees; Center for Responsive Politics; Sunlight Foundation; Political Party Time; Internal Revenue Service; IRS; National Institute on Money in State Politics; TransparencyData.com; Congrelate.org
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Following The Money
Salant details where to look and what to look for when investigating campaign finance. He lists resources for the following: campaign contributions; lobbying; earmarks; legislative favors
Tags: campaign finance; Federal Election Commission; FEC; Center for Responsive Politics; CRP; Sunlight Foundation; Internal Revenue Service; IRS; National Institute on Money in State Politics; OpenSecrets.org; earmarks; lobbying; legislative favors
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Tracing Money In Federal Politics
Campbell details how to track federal campaign finance information. He identified the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as the "fountainheads of federal campaign data." Campbell gives an overview of the type of information available on these sites. And recommends searching the FEC site whenever you are backgrounding an individual.
Tags: campaign finance; federal elections; Federal Election Commission; FEC; Internal Revenue Service; IRS; backgrounding; money in politics; political contributions; campaign donations; donors
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Three Things to Know About 2008 Political Money
Overby explains three important aspects of covering contemporary political campaigns: bundling, joint fundraising committees, and independent groups. For each issue, Overby provides a description, sources of information, and story ideas. The tipsheet also includes a list of useful FEC reports that reporters should recognize and understand.
Tags: campaign finance; FEC; elections; politics; federal government; story ideas; fundraising; 527 groups
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CAR for Money and Politics
The authors list and describe sources for data to use in stories about money and politics. Some of the sources are place to find concrete records, such as the Federal Election Commission and the IRS. Other sources include organizations that have already compiled the records into searchable databases, like the Center for Public Integrity and OMB watch.
Tags: lobbyists; campaign contributions; politics; government documents; government contracts; government spending; sources; internet research
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Welcome to the long, long, long (really, really long), painfully long, long, long (did we mention long?) road to election day 2008
The authors discuss why it is important to begin election planning now. They discuss the front-loaded primaries and new campaign finance restrictions.
Tags: elections; politics; federal government; campaign finance; beat reporting
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Following the Money in Congress: Meet the (New/Old/Same) Boss
Willis discusses how to make sense of confusing campaign finance rules. He also suggests websites and resources that will be useful for reporters on this beat.
Tags: campaign finance; money; federal government; election; politicians
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Analyzing Campaign Data
Guckian gives guidelines to follow when reporting on elections, campaigns, etc. She provides useful information on filing periods and deadlines, federal laws that limit campaign gifts, Texas laws on the subject, places to find the data and common problems with data analysis, and more.En Espanol: 2888
Tags: elections; campaign money; politics; political action committees; lobbyists; fraud; social network analysis