Committee master file description
The committee master file contains basic information for each committee registered with the Federal Election Commission, including:
- Federal political action committees and party committees
- Campaign committees for presidential, house, and senate candidates
- Groups or organizations spending money for or against candidates for federal office
The file has one record per committee and shows the committee identification number, committee name, sponsor (when appropriate), treasurer name, committee address, information about the type of committee, and the candidate identification number (for campaign committees). The end-of-line (EOL) marker is line feed '\n' (LF, 0x0A, 10 in decimal).
Committee master file format
| Column name | Field name | Position | Null | Data type | Description | Example data |
| CMTE_ID | Committee identification | 1 | N | VARCHAR2(9) | A 9-character alpha-numeric code assigned to a committee by the Federal Election Commission. Committee IDs are unique and an ID for a specific committee always remains the same. | C00100005 |
| CMTE_NM |
Committee name | 2 | Y | VARCHAR2(200) | Martha Washington for Congress | |
| TRES_NM |
Treasurer's name |
3 | Y | VARCHAR2(90) | The officially registered treasurer for the committee. | Alexander Hamilton |
| CMTE_ST1 | Street one | 4 | Y | VARCHAR2(34) | 1001 George Washington Hwy | |
| CMTE_ST2 | Street two | 5 | Y | VARCHAR2(34) | Suite 203 | |
| CMTE_CITY | City or town | 6 | Y | VARCHAR2(30) | Alexandria | |
| CMTE_ST | State | 7 | Y | VARCHAR2(2) | VA | |
| CMTE_ZIP | ZIP code | 8 | Y | VARCHAR2(9) | 22201 | |
| CMTE_DSGN | Committee designation | 9 | Y | VARCHAR2(1) | A = Authorized by a candidate B = Lobbyist/Registrant PAC D = Leadership PAC J = Joint fundraiser P = Principal campaign committee of a candidate U = Unauthorized |
A |
| CMTE_TP | Committee type | 10 | Y | VARCHAR2(1) | List of committee type codes | H |
| CMTE_PTY_AFFILIATION | Committee party | 11 | Y | VARCHAR2(3) | List of party codes | NON |
| CMTE_FILING_FREQ | Filing frequency | 12 | Y | VARCHAR2(1) | A = Administratively terminated D = Debt M = Monthly filer Q = Quarterly filer T = Terminated W = Waived |
Q |
| ORG_TP | Interest group category | 13 | Y | VARCHAR2(1) | C = Corporation L = Labor organization M = Membership organization T = Trade association V = Cooperative W = Corporation without capital stock |
C |
| CONNECTED_ORG_NM | Connected organization's name | 14 | Y | VARCHAR2(200) | Widgets, Incorporated | |
| CAND_ID |
Candidate identification | 15 | Y | VARCHAR2(9) | When a committee has a committee type designation of H, S, or P, the candidate's identification number will be entered in this field. | H1VA01225 |