{
  "id": "1996-february-the-fec-has-made-available-free-of-charge-campaign-finance-data",
  "slug": "1996-february-the-fec-has-made-available-free-of-charge-campaign-finance-data",
  "url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1996-february-the-fec-has-made-available-free-of-charge-campaign-finance-data.html",
  "year": 1996,
  "month": "February",
  "monthNum": 2,
  "headline": "The FEC has made available free of charge campaign finance data",
  "kicker": "",
  "author_name": "",
  "author_title": "",
  "affiliation": "NICAR",
  "summary": "The FEC has launched a free internet service providing public access to campaign finance data including candidate information, downloadable databases, and historical election cycle summaries, with monthly updates beginning with 1995-1996 cycle data.",
  "keywords": [
    "campaign",
    "finance",
    "data"
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Government & Politics",
    "Data & Databases"
  ],
  "technologies": [
    "Internet",
    "World Wide Web",
    "FTP"
  ],
  "full_text": "The FEC has made available free of charge campaign finance data via the Internet. Data posted by the FEC includes: information about candidates, parties and other committees; downloadable databases containing data about candidates, parties and other committees; and summary files for past election cycles. The 1995-1996 cycle data will be updated monthly henceforth and posted on-line the first of each month. The data can be accessed via the World Wide Web at http://www.fec.gov or via anonymous ftp (file transfer protocol) at ftp.fec.gov.",
  "provenance": {
    "extracted_by": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
    "extracted_at": "2026-07-05",
    "verified": true
  },
  "similar": [
    {
      "slug": "1999-september-tipsheets-on-campaign-finance",
      "score": 0.354
    },
    {
      "slug": "2003-septemberoctober-new-beat-book",
      "score": 0.337
    },
    {
      "slug": "1998-august-campaign-finance-information-center",
      "score": 0.32
    },
    {
      "slug": "2000-januaryfebruary-the-money-trail-tracking-campaign-cash",
      "score": 0.312
    },
    {
      "slug": "2003-novemberdecember-readmetxt-ire-tipsheets-on-campaign-finance",
      "score": 0.292
    }
  ],
  "html_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1996-february-the-fec-has-made-available-free-of-charge-campaign-finance-data.html",
  "json_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1996-february-the-fec-has-made-available-free-of-charge-campaign-finance-data.json"
}