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 "lobbyists" ...
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Money and Politics-Who's Giving
This tipsheet is a detailed guide to finding out who is giving money to politicians and their staffers and why.
Tags: campaign finance; lobbyists; lobbying; nonprofits; regulations; 527 groups
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The Hidden Life of Guns
Grimaldi gives day by day instructions on how to track guns, and who sold those guns. He gives tips on how to contact pro-gun people and anti-gun people, in order to keep your story a-political.
Tags: guns; gun lobbyists; pro-gun; anti-gun; tracking guns; gun dealers
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Investigating Politicians
Grimaldi covers basics for backgrounding politicians, but goes into depth about some of the things you should look for in their property records, etc. He also details how to explore their campaign finances and various lobbying and travel reports.
Tags: politics; politicians; lobbyists; campaign finance; House of Representatives; Senate; Congress;
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Clout Goes to College
Cohen gives examples of the FOIA requests and challenges faced during the Chicago Tribune's "Clout Goes To College" series. Included are examples of the FOIA requests sent and data obtained.
Tags: FOIA; data; higher education; lobbyists; Office of Governmental Affairs; college; university; admissions
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How to use campaign finance data to track fundraising, and other lobbyist largesse
The author discusses how to use FEC records to track fundraising done by lobbyists. He gives examples of data analysis and explains how to interpret the results. The author also discusses how to report on in-kind contributions from lobbyists.
Tags: campaign finance; FEC; fundraising; lobbyists; politics; state government; federal government
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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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Follow the money trail in politics
Grimaldi lists numerous online resources for campaign finance and lobbying stories and explains how to most successfully utilize FOIA. His tipsheet offers both strategic and tactical advise for money trail stories, from the big questions to the little details.
Tags: politics; campaign finance; lobbyists; FOIA; open records; online resources; web sites; campaign contributions
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Center for public integrity policy data accuracy
Perry shares the Center for Public Integrity's procedures and policies for computer assisted reporting. It addresses data importation, cleaning, coding, updates and fact checking. It is an extensive explanation of CAR methods. Also included is a summary of the methods used for a story about lobbyists providing legislators with free travel.
Tags: CAR; computer assisted reporting; data; campaign finance; research
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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
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Info merchants and influence peddlers: tracking lobbyists, consultants and fund-raisers
Wilkinson and Drew's tipsheet focuses on obtaining campaign finance records in Ohio, but they also address federal campaign finance records, and their principles can be applied to other states, as well. They also advise on how to effectively pursue FOI requests.
Tags: campaign finance; public records; open records; FOI; politics; lobbying; lobbyists; 527; government contracting; political contributions; state government; federal government