Fec-cms: Design solution for candidates with missing data from a committee conversion

[JonellaCulmer]

What we're after: For those candidates who convert their candidate committees to PACs mid-cycle or mid-two-year-period, their committee information is lost on their candidate profile pages and the connection between candidate and committee is broken.

For most candidate and committees pages, our system relies on those committees retaining their candidate committee in order for us to link the two together. When a candidate converts mid-cycle our system does not account for it and it appears, on candidate pages, that no money was raised at all and there is no associated committee.

As a data user, I need to be able to find financial data for all 2020 candidates.

Completion criteria:

• [x] Mock up solution that allows for users to find relevant financial data

[JonellaCulmer]

Affected candidates:

Candidates converting mid-cycle

_Presidential candidates_

• Julian Castro's (ID: P00009092) presidential campaign committee, Julian for the Future, converted to a PAC and renamed it, People First Future (ID: C00693044)
  
  
  
  • Julian Castro's candidate profile page still contains data from his exploratory committee.
  
  
  • Users can go back to a previous cycle to see old committee information, but it's for an exploratory committee only.
  
  
• Pete Buttigieg's (ID: P00010298) presidential campaign committee, Pete for America, Inc., converted to a PAC and renamed it, Win the Era PAC (ID: C00697441)
  
  
  
  • Pete Buttigieg's candidate profile page contains no data.
  
  
  • Users cannot go back a previous cycle on the committee profile page to see old information easily.
  
  

_House candidates_

• Katie Hill's (ID: H8CA25074) House campaign committee, Katie Hill for Congress, converted to a PAC and renamed it, Her Time PAC (ID: C00634212)
  
  
  
  • Katie Hill's candidate profile page for 2020 contains no data.
  
  
  • Users can go back to 2017-2018 on the committee profile page to see the candidate's old committee name and information. But the conversion happened in 2019-2020.
  
  
• Sean Frame's (ID: H0CA04167) House campaign committee, Sean Frame for Congress, converted to a PAC and renamed it, The Six PAC (ID: C00691790)
  
  
  
  • Sean Frame's candidate profile page for 2020 contains no data.
  
  
  • Users can go back to 2017-2018 to see the candidate's old committee name and information. But the conversion happened in 2019-2020.
  
  
• Robert Emmons Jr.'s (ID: H0IL01178) House campaign committee, Friends to Elect Robert Emmons Jr., converted to a PAC and renamed it, Our Everyday PAC (ID: C00697128)
  
  
  
  • Robert Emmons's candidate profile page for 2020 contains no data.
  
  
  • Like Pete Buttigieg's committee profile page, users cannot go back a previous cycle to see old information easily.
  
  
• John Dennis's (ID: H0CA08069) House campaign committee, John Dennis for Congress, converted to a PAC and renamed it, Freedom and Prosperity PAC 2020 (ID: C00698894)
  
  
  
  • John Dennis's candidate profile page for 2020 contains no data.
  
  
  • Like Pete Buttigieg's committee profile page, users cannot go back a previous cycle to see old information easily.
  
  

Removed from the list, as she was never officially a 2020 candidate and this work is focusing on 2020 candidates.

• Lauren Baer's (ID: H8FL18028) House campaign committee, Lauren Baer for Congress, converted to a PAC and renamed it, More Like America (ID: C00652594)
  
  
  
  • Lauren Baer's candidate profile page does not list 2020 as an election year, even though her committee converted to a PAC in 2020. I'd imagine the election would be available but lacking any data.
  
  
  • Users can go back to 2017-2018 on the committee profile page to see the candidate's old committee name and information. But the conversion happened in 2019-2020.
  
  

[patphongs]

@JonellaCulmer This may help with your design ideas. I mocked up in the code what it would look like if we had a separate error message for these kinds of candidates. We can modify the missing financials error to be whatever you would like it to be. The PR is waiting in the wings until you've finalized the design solution: https://github.com/fecgov/fec-cms/pull/3814

[JonellaCulmer]

@patphongs Thanks for doing that. Will be a helpful visual aid when I meet with RAD today.

[JonellaCulmer]

Notes on the steps taken in RAD for when an authorized committee converts mid-cycle.

Step 1: The committee amends form 1 to change the committee type. Typically, authorized campaign committee's convert to nonconnected PAC (like Pete Buttigieg). Making this amendment is how RAD is informed, although sometimes committees reach out ahead of time to give a heads up.

Step 2: RAD sees the change and reviews the amended form.

Step 3: If the type is changed then RAD makes the conversion in their database. They change both the type of committee and whether the committee is authorized/unauthorized. Typically changing from authorized to unauthorized. This change would appear on the website next day. (RAD will proceed without the committee changing their name.)

Step 4: The committee is transferred from one analyst to another because the committee type has changed. A separate process takes place to update the analyst contact information.

Before RAD can make the conversion, the committee has to have filed all their reports and they need to be reviewed first. Also, any RFAIs resulting from that final filing review need to be sent out, but waiting for response does not prevent the committee from being converted on FEC's end.

Questions resulting from the discussion:

• How are we planning to decide which candidates we want to go include?
• How will we find out about candidates in the future who convert their committees? A preliminary option would be for RAD (Jaime and one other person) to make it part of their normal processes to inform the website team. This would be temporary as we plan to move to a more programmatic approach in the future.

[JonellaCulmer]

@AmyKort @PaulClark2 @patphongs @hcaofec @lbeaufort

Below are the first draft mockups for the Pete problem. Right this particular issues impacts about 3-5 "high-level candidates" include presidential and House candidates. Jaime in RAD is going to send me more names next week, if they exist. But we can use the names in the above comment for now. With those candidates in mind, the language is general to just the campaign committee to PAC conversion.

I've included links on both the candidate and committee pages to re-establish the connection between both places since that was lost once the committee was no longer authorized by the candidate. Jaime confirmed that the language included is accurate. But I'd still like content (@dorothyyeager) to take a look.

Candidate profile page:

Committee profile page:

[dorothyyeager]

I do have a suggestion for the language, although I like overall approach. I think it's a good idea to specify the type of PAC it became (a nonconnected committee/leadership PAC). I went with leadership PAC but if people are nervous about that, then I'd sub in "nonconnected committee" and that glossary link. How about this:

Candidate version:
Financial data for this candidate now appears under the committee name Win the Era, following the committees conversion to a leadership PAC (add glossary link) from a principal campaign committee (add glossary link). Before its conversion, this committee was authorized by candidate Buttegieg, Pete.

Committee version:
Financial data for this committee contains funds raised and spent under its former name, Pete for America, Inc., which before it was converted, was a principal campaign committee (add the glossary link). Before its conversion to a leadership PAC (add the glossary link), this committee was authorized by candidate Buttegieg, Pete.

[JonellaCulmer]

@dorothyyeager Thanks for the suggestion! Some background on why we chose just "PAC", we thought that we'd have to make few adjustments for different candidates who make this change. But I defer to the group on that level of effort.

[dorothyyeager]

Yeah, that's definitely why I wouldn't go with "leadership PAC". By definition they wouldn't be a separate segregated fund, so I was thinking "nonconnected" at least points a user to the pages where the rules for them would be found. But it might be too much, so if everyone prefers PAC, that's OK.

[PaulClark2]

@JonellaCulmer @dorothyyeager I think for the first iteration of this "pac" is fine. In this specific case, Win the Era is a non-qualified, non-connected PAC (committee type "N," committee designation "U")

[lbeaufort]

@JonellaCulmer this language is very helpful and language/design looks great to me.

Implementation thoughts:

• For the candidate profile page, ideally the logic in the back end would link to the committee ID and dynamically pull the committee name, in case the committee name changes again.
• For both candidate and committee profile pages, I'd also want to make sure the messages only show up for the cycle during which the conversion occurred. For senate and president, we'd need to make sure 2-year period and full election cycle logic makes sense. cc: @patphongs

[JonellaCulmer]

@lbeaufort Those were my same thoughts as well, particularly your second point. Thanks for documenting them so clearly.

[patphongs]

@JonellaCulmer In our discussions, we decided to show this special message for the "All years" button as well as the effected cycle, in this case, all 2020 two year time periods. Can you mock up what the message would look like for the "All years" view?

[patphongs]

@JonellaCulmer I have two issues with the current design solution:

1. There's no way to query the API for the former committee name. Manually creating a look up would be complex to maintain, especially outside of the API.

2. Minor issue: The committee name must be in all caps as that is how the API prints it, but I think that is in line with how we normally display committee names anyways.

[JonellaCulmer]

@patphongs Yeah, I figured. Can we hard code the name?

I can update my draft of the mockup to include all caps.

[patphongs]

Thanks @JonellaCulmer, I did talk to @lbeaufort about this and I think the path will be the hardcode the former committee names as a look up for now. I was worried if the API would be able to catch up, but @lbeaufort knows the data is there in the filings, we just have to build in the capability.

[JonellaCulmer]

Updated mockups and candidates who would use them and when. @patphongs Happy to talk about this if there are any questions.

Committee profile page view - all

Candidate profile page view - Julian Castro, All years and two-year period

Candidate profile page view - all except Julian, All years

Candidate profile page view - all except Julian, two-year period

[PaulClark2]

I'm sorry I'm rejoining this a little late. I have concerns about the language. To start, the first line of the message is factually incorrect. I'm suggesting that we go with language something like this:

!2019-2020 financial data for BUTTIGIEG, PETE now appears under the committee name WIN THE ERA, following the committee's conversion to a PAC from a principal campaign committee. Prior to its conversion to a PAC the candidate's principal campaign committee was named PETE FOR AMERICA, INC.

cc: @AmyKort @patphongs @JonellaCulmer

edited "date" to be "data"

[PaulClark2]

The "converted" message should appear on the "all years tab" and the 2-year tab or tabs that the committee had financial activity. I assume that if the committee had no financial activity that the related 2-year tab will be inactive.

[JonellaCulmer]

@PaulClark2 I agree it should be in both places. That's where we were going with that as well.

Unfortunately, whether or not the 2-year period tab is active or not depends on when the candidate filed. Julian Castro filed his F2 in 2017-2018 and has financial activity during that period. He converted in 2019-2020 and 2019-2020 is inactive.

Conversely, Pete filed his F2 in 2019-2020 and even though he has no financial activity, his 2019-2020 tab is active.

[PaulClark2]

@JonellaCulmer understood about the filing activity and active tabs.

[patphongs]

@PaulClark2 @JonellaCulmer @AmyKort The change to the candidate profile page message has been made as requested in the PR: https://github.com/fecgov/fec-cms/pull/3814/commits/71b4e8e35d0903ab55f9050b04856cddda3d38d4. New screenshot:

[JonellaCulmer]

Closing in favor of PR: https://github.com/fecgov/fec-cms/pull/3814