By Ed Otte

Sandra Fish and Jeff Roberts presented “geeky” information on campaign finance research and open government resources Aug. 7 at Colorado State University in Pueblo. The program was sponsored by the Colorado Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

“I’m pretty geeky about this because there’s a lot of information on the Internet. It’s easy to find and really useful now with the elections,” said Fish, Colorado Pro Chapter board secretary. “You can see how much money candidates have raised and where money has been spent on ad buys. And there’ll be more information in September and October when we reach filing deadlines.”

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Fish listed the following online sources:

Federal Election Commission

Summaries of candidate fundraising and spending; independent expenditure searches:
http://fec.gov
http://fec.gov/data/IndependentExpenditure.do?format=html&election_yr=2014

Sunlight Foundation

Influence Explorer allows you to search by specific candidates or by state. An easier download of contributions and spending than the FEC site. Outside spending is also available here:
http://realtime.influenceexplorer.com/

Federal Communications Commission

Search for your local TV station to check out their political ad contracts:
https://stations.fcc.gov/

State

Secretary of State’s main election site:
http://www.sos.state.co.us/

Links to initiatives, basic voter registration stats, candidates, campaign finances:
http://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/main.html

Campaign finance site. General stats, detailed committee and candidate information, variety of searches and reports on items such as independent expenditures, etc:
http://tracer.sos.colorado.gov/PublicSite/Homepage.aspx

National Institute on Money in State Politics. Good source of historic campaign finance information, with standardized names and occupations:
http://beta.followthemoney.org

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Roberts, executive director of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, answered questions about open records and open meetings laws, and listed the following resources:

Template for Colorado Open Records Act request:
http://coloradofoic.org/files/2013/12/Sample-Colorado-Open-Records-Request. pdf

Sunshine Laws: 2013 guide to Colorado’s open-government laws prepared by CFOIC and the Colorado Press Association:
http//coloradofoic.org/files/2013/12/CPA-Sunshine-Laws-Booklet web.pdf

Law Summary (CORA):
http://coloradofoic.org/files/2013/12/CORA OLLS.pdf

Law Summary (Open Meetings Requirements)
http://coloradofoic.org/files/2013/12/OPEN-MEETINGS-REQUIREMENTS-OF-THE-STATE-OF-COLORADO-SUNSHINE-LAW.pdf

For more FOI resources, go to:
coloradofoic.org/new-resources