Here’s a good question asked by several TPM Readers.
How do you find out how much money a particular officeholder has stashed away?
(What is this about? See the post below.)
It’s actually pretty easy.
1. Go to fec.gov
2. On the left hand column, click “Campaign Finance Reports and Data”
3. On that page go down to the second item which reads “View/Download Electronic Filings”
4. Now you’ll get a fill out form with all sorts 
of questions, state, kind of committee, etc. In most cases you don’t need to fill those out. Just go to the fill-in line that reads “Partial Name of Committee”. If you know the name of the officeholder’s election committee great. But if you don’t, in most cases, you can just type in their last name. And that will bring up the right data.
5. Click ‘Send Query’ and that should bring up a bunch of filings you can either download or view. You’re looking for the most recent filing. That should be at or near the top and it should be called “Oct Quarterly”. That’s the filing from October 15th. And it covers up through the end of September. In a hotly contested race, that number might now be out of date. But in one where the officeholder isn’t facing that much of a fight, it should give you a pretty accurate idea of how much cash they’re sitting on.
6. Okay, now you’ve clicked ‘view’ on Oct Quarterly. Scroll down to the “Summary Page” and that will show you a series of numbers. Look at Item 8, “Cash on Hand at Close of Reporting Period”, that’s your number. In many cases it’ll be hundreds of thousands or even many millions of dollars.
Getting this number is actually really easy. I’ve tried to be as specific and detailed as possible in these instructions to avoid any confusion. But the whole thing takes maybe thirty seconds.
Late Update: Turns out Chris Bowers has already done some of the work for you. He’s posted this list of 45 Dem reps who are literally running unopposed this cycle. Together they’re sitting on over $26 million. Half a dozen of them have more than a million dollars each.
Even Later Update: TPM Reader TP suggests an easier way …
The FEC.GOV site is archaic. Here’s a much, much easier way:
1. Go to http://WWW.OPENSECRETS.ORG. There’s a form right on the front of the page; enter your zip code and your representative pops up. Click on them and you get a summary page with their cash on hand, taken from the FEC filings.
2. Go to http://WWW.CQPOLITICS.COM/06map.html. Can you find yourself on a map? CQ will tell you whether your rep is in a real race.
My rep’s Danny K. Davis, smack in the middle of Chicago. Not a real race. He’s got $500k on hand. Here’s my question: do I call? What specifically should I ask? Durbin and Obama aren’t up this cycle. Should I call them? I want to help!
