- "CD" stands for congressional district.
- Under "Party", a designation including "-inc" refers to an incumbent.
- "2Q Raised" is the amount the candidate has received in donations from donors during the quarter, including transfers but not including any self-funding or loans. (See discussion below.)
- "Self Fund" is the amount of direct contributions a candidate has made to his or her own campaign. This number, if any, is not counted in the "Raised" column.
- "Self Loan" is the amount of any loans a candidate has made to his or her own campaign. This number, if any, is not counted in the "Raised" column. In practical terms, such loans function identically to traditional self-funding as described above, except that campaign donations may be used to repay loans.
- "Raised CTD" indicates how much a candidate has raised for the election cycle-to-date as of the end of the quarter. This figure does not include self-funding or loans.
- "Spent" is the amount of money the campaign has spent during the quarter.
- "CoH" stands for total cash-on-hand the campaign has available at the end of the quarter.
In the past, we had separated out transfers from the amount raised for the quarter because, when they were employed, transfers were most commonly used to shift money from old political committees to new ones. (For instance, a member of Congress might retire with $250,000 still left in his campaign account. He can then transfer that money to a new account if he makes a comeback.) As such, transfers did not typically reflect current fundraising strength.
In recent years, however, joint fundraising committees have become increasingly popular. These committees might involve, say, a candidate jointly raising money with the DCCC or NRCC, or a group of candidates raising money together; the proceeds are then split among the beneficiaries. (See here for a further explanation.) Since money raised by a joint fundraising committee does usually reflect current fundraising strength these days, we've decided that combining those totals into the "2Q Raised" column provides a more accurate picture of how well a candidate is doing financially.
However, we've still preserved that data. You can access the chart above in spreadsheet form here, and if you click through, you'll see two additional columns on the right-hand side:
- "Self Fund CTD" is the amount of direct contributions a candidate has made to his or her own campaign for the election cycle-to-date. This number, if any, is not counted in the "Raised CTD" column.
- "Transfer" is the amount of monetary transfers from other political committees. This number, if any, is counted in the "2Q Raised" column.
Ultimately, all money received from all sources is reflected in every candidate's cash-on-hand totals, less spending. You can also check out our roundups for previous quarters: 1Q 2017 | 2Q 2017 | 3Q 2017 | 4Q 2017 | 1Q 2018.
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