For Immediate Release: May 17, 2023
Contact: Nancy Jackson (213) 978-1960
Today, the Ethics Commission launched a new data visualization tool, through which the public can explore independent expenditures in City of Los Angeles (City) and the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board of Education elections since 2019. The new Independent Expenditures (IE) Dashboard is online at https://ethics.lacity.org/campaigns/iedashboard/
A person who is not a candidate may spend money in an attempt to influence the outcome of an election. When that money is unconnected with a campaign, meaning it is not a contribution and is not coordinated with a candidate, it is considered an independent expenditure. Independent spenders may be individuals, committees, and other entities.
When an independent spender makes or incurs expenses at or beyond certain thresholds, the spender is required to file public disclosure statements about their contributions, expenditures, and campaign communications. Data from statements filed with the Ethics Commission is visualized in the IE Dashboard. Through the dashboard, the public may:
- Filter IEs by election, seat, candidate or ballot measure, and whether the IE was made to support or oppose a candidate or ballot measure.
- Visualize expenditures using a horizontal bar chart, for at-a-glance comparisons between total expenditures made by different independent spenders.
- Easily link to copies of disclosure statements and campaign communications.
The IE Dashboard is one of several interactive data tools created by the Ethics Commission and accessible through its online Data Hub. Other helpful tools include the Election Totals page, an interactive table of campaign finance data, and the Public Data Portal, a repository for data and reports about campaigns, lobbying, contracts, developers, audits, enforcement orders, and more. For more information about the IE Dashboard or any of the Ethics Commission’s other data tools, please contact us.
To download PDF, click here.
The Ethics Commission was created by Los Angeles voters in 1990 to impartially administer and enforce the City’s governmental ethics, campaign financing, and lobbying laws.