The file contains information on the campaigns of all individuals who have registered under the Federal Election Campaign Act candidates for the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives. As such, the file includes a number of individuals who may not be statutory candidates under the 1979 Amendments to the FECA, e.g., someone seeking nomination to federal office who has not received contributions or made expenditures aggregating in excess of $5,000. Also included are some individuals who have been certified by the appropriate state authorities as official Senate or House candidates in a primary, runoff, or general election but who have not registered as candidates under the FECA. A campaign includes the candidate, the principal campaign committee as designated by the candidate, and any committees authorized by the candidate to accept contributions or make expenditures for the campaign. This definition of a campaign does not include 1) any office account committee associated with a member of Congress, or 2) any joint fundraising committee authorized by the candidate in conjunction with other candidates or committees. N.B. The file for does include committees authorized by candidates which exist solely for the purpose of repaying debts from previous elections. Candidates may choose to authorize a separate committee for this purpose, or they may use one committee for both current and past activity. As the latter alternative has become more common, fewer so called "debt" committees have existed, and two candidates undertaking exactly the same activity (i.e., debt retirement) would be treated differently if debt committees were excluded. The file contains one record for each campaign. The records are arranged alphabetically by state abbreviation, and within state by office sought (Senate, then House) and by Congressional District. It is important that the limitations of the information on this tape be understood. It represents data which had been entered into the Commission's computer system as of the day before the date of this file. While it is intended to give a complete picture of the financial activity of these campaigns during the two-year election cycle, it is possible that amendments to reports will have been filed after the generation of these files. Available at the Commission for inspection are microfilmed copies of the original reports which show information as reported by the filers. The microfilmed public record is the official record of the Federal Election Commission. This data file is one of several tools which have been developed to summarize the vast quantity of data available on the microfilmed public record. SPECIFICATIONS HOUSE/SENATE FILE ATTRIBUTE DESCRIPTION LOCATION 1) Candidate ID ID number assigned by the Commis- 1-9 sion. The first letter indicates the federal office sought (S for Senate, H for House). The third and fourth char- acters indicate the state in which the candidate has run. 2) Candidate Name 10-47 3) Incumbent/Challenger/ Open-Seat 48 I=Incumbent. Incumbent campaigns are those of candidates who have held a Congressional office at any time dur- ing the 103rd Congress. With respect to the special elections held in 1995 and 1996 for vacant Congressional seats, post-election receipts and disburse- ments reported by the winners are included in their incumbent-campaign record. Earlier monies reported by these campaigns are found in their special election record, coded as open-seat. C=Challenger. This in- cludes all campaigns in which the candidate ran in a district which contained an incumbent who sought reelection. In cases in which the incumbent was defeated in the pri- mary, the general election was consi- dered to be between two challengers. O=Open Seat. Open-Seat campaigns are those of candidates seeking elec- tions in to seats in which an incumbent was not seeking re- election. This category includes all special election records, al- though monies of special election candidates who ran again in the regular 1996 election process appear in other records for these candidates, coded as I for the special election winner and as a C for losers who ran again in the regular election. 4) Party 1=Democratic, 2=Republican, 3=Other 49 Party. This information is defined for incumbents by the caucus in which they participate, for others, it is taken from candidates' declarations on their Statement of Candidacy or from state ballot listings. 5) Party Desig Three-character code for party. 50-52 AIP=American Independent Party AMP=American Party CIT=Citizens Party COM=Communist Party CRV=Conservative Party CST=Constitutional Party DEM=Democratic Party DFL=Democratic Farm Labor Party IND=Independent LBL=Liberal Party LBU=Liberty Union Party LIB=Libertarian Party NAP=Prohibition Party NLP=Natural Law Party PAF=Peace and Freedom Party REF=Reform Party RTL=Right to Life SLP=Socialist Labor Party SUS=Socialist Party U.S.A. SWP=Socialist Workers Party UNK=Unknown 6) Total Receipts This column includes all incoming 53-62 funds reported on Line 16 by the candidates and all committees he or she has authorized for a 1995 or 1996 campaign. It does not include the receipts of office-account com- mittees, or receipts by joint fund- raising committees authorized by the candidate in conjunction with other candidates or committees. 7) Authorized Transfers From This column includes the movement 63-72 of monies, goods, or property between the authorized committees of a single campaign. Note that "transfers" do not include the transfers of funds between the authorized committee and office-account committees, or joint fundraising committees. 8) Total Disbursements This column 73-82 includes all outgoing funds reported by all authorized committees on line 22. It does not include disbursements by office- account committees, or joint fund- raising committees. 9) Transfers to Authorized 83-92 See Authorized Transfers From above. 10) Beginning Cash 1/1/95 93-102 The "cash-on-hand" of a campaign on (or its initial 1995 "cash on hand if it registered after 1/1/95) is reported here. The information is taken from Line 23. 11) Ending Cash The "cash-on-hand" of a campaign on 103-112 the campaign's latest report in 1996 is reported here. 12) Contrib from Candidate 113-122 The total amount of contributions by the candidate to his or her own campaign appears in this column. The source is line 11d. 13) Loans from Candidate 123-132 This column contains the total amounts of loans made by or guaranteed by the candidate to his or own campaign. The source is line 13b. 14) Other Loans 133-142 This column contains the total amounts of loans that were not made by or guaranteed by the candidate. The source is line 13b. 15) Candidate Loan Repayments 143-152 This figure represents the total repayments made by the campaign of loans made by or guaranteed by the candidate. Note that a common pat- tern for losing candidates is to forgive loans to their campaigns. This amount then appears as a can- didate loan, a candidate loan repay- ment, and a candidate contribution. The information comes from Line 19a. 16) Other Loan Repayments 153-162 This amount represents the total repayments made by the campaign of loans made by and guaranteed by someone other than the candidate. The source is Line 19b. 17) Debts Owed By This column contains the total debts 163-172 owed by the committee at the time of the filing of their last report re- ceived for the election cycle. The source is Line 10. 18) Total Indiv. Contrib This amount represents the sum of all 173-182 individual contributions in any amount received by the campaign. The source of the information is Line 11a. 19) State Code 183-184 20) District The Congressional district within 185-186 which the candidate ran in 1995 or 1996. Contains 00 for Senate candi- dates. 21) Spec Elec Status Blank=not involved in a special 187 election in 1995 or 1996. W=won special election. L=Lost. R= Runoff was held following a 1995 or 1996 special election. 22) Primary Elec Status Blank=not involved in a primary 188 election in 1996. W=won primary election. L=Lost. R=Runoff was held following a 1996 primary. 23) Runoff Elec Status Blank=not involved in runoff elec- 189 tion. W=won runoff. L=Lost. 24) General Elec Status Blank=not involved in November, 190 1994 general election or Louisiana multi-party primary. W=Won general election. L=Lost. 25) General Elec Pct Percentage of November, 1996 general 191-193 election vote received by the candi- date. 26) Contributions from Other Political Committees 194-203 Included here are contributions from PACs, other candidates, and other political committees not part of the political party organization. This value is taken from the detailed summary page of each report filed by the campaign. This information will differ from information about PAC contributions contained in hstap1.zip, because that material includes only PAC contributions, and is taken from the PACs' reports. 27) Contributions from Party Committees 204-213 Included here are contributions to the campaign from party committees at the national, state, and local level. This information is taken from the detailed summary page of each report filed by the campaign. It may differ from the information about party contributions included in hstap1.zip, where the information is taken from the party committees who made contributions. 28) Ending Date 214-221 The ending date of the most recent report filed by the campaign. The format is mmddyyyy. 29) Refunds to Individuals 222-231 30) Refunds to Committees 232-241