The Leadership PAC List is a list of Statements of Organization (arranged alphabetically by the name of the committee) where the statement indicates that the committee is a Leadership PAC.
Members of Congress and other political leaders often establish nonconnected committees, general known as "leadership PACs," to support candidates for various federal and nonfederal offices. A leadership PAC is defined as a political committee that is directly or indirectly established, financed, maintained or controlled by a candidate or an individual holding federal office, but is not an authorized committee of the candidate or officeholder and is not affiliated with an authorized committee of a candidate or officeholder (so is not campaigning on behalf of that person's election).
Because committees identify the Leadership PAC sponsor in several different ways, columns in the table are included to show all of them. Leadership PACs must identify themselves to the FEC because certain bundled contributions they receive from lobbyist registrants or PACs of lobbyist registrants must now be disclosed to the FEC.
Campaigns, parties and leadership PACs controlled by candidates must disclose contributions beyond a certain threshold if they have been bundled by a lobbyist/registrant PAC. A bundled contribution is any contribution that is either (1) forwarded to a leadership or campaign committee by a lobbyist/registrant or lobbyist/registrant PAC, or (2) received by the leadership or campaign committee and credited to a lobbyist/registrant or lobbyist/registrant PAC through "records, designations, or other means of recognizing that a certain amount of money has been raised."
Note that these rules apply only to current office holders or candidates for federal office. Committees controlled by individuals who are not currently candidates or office holders are not included in this list.
The FEC has also created a blog to discuss features of these files and respond to your questions or comments.
The Leadership PAC List contains the following information:
| Tag | Field Name | Data Type | Description | Range | Explanation |
| com_id | Committee ID | Character | Character C followed by eight digits | 9 characters | unique nine digit identifier used by the Commission to identify each political committee. In general committee id's begin with the letter C which is followed by eight numeric values |
| com_nam | Committee Name | Character | Name of committee or other entity registered with the FEC. | Max 90 characters | |
| lin_ima | Link to list of reports for the committee | URI | List of all disclosure filings for this committee | Link to listing at fec.gov of all reports submitted by this committee | |
| spo_nam | Name of candidate or officeholder | Text | Name of the candidate or officeholder who sponsors the PAC | ||
aff_com_nam |
Affiliated Committee Name | Text | Name of any other committee affiliated with this leadership PAC | This may also include the name of the candidate who sponsors the PAC | |
tot_rec |
Receipts | Currency | Total 2009-2010 receipts | Sum of receipts for the full two-year period through the most recent filing | |
tot_dis |
Disbursements | Currency | Total 2009-2010 disbursements | Sum of disbursements for the full two-year period through the most recent filing | |
cas_on_han |
Latest Cash on Hand | Currency | Cash on hand at the end of the most recent report | ||
cov_end_dat |
Ending Date | Date | MM/DD/YYYY | Ending date for the most recent report |
Information is taken from the committee's Statement of Organization (FEC Form 1) which has been submitted either electronically or on paper (for new committees).
The list appears in alphabetical order, but it can be sorted by any of the elements (e.g. date, committee id, etc.) presented. In addition, the "customize data" option searches for specific committees based on name or id or sponsor.
