Database on Ideology, Money in Politics, and Elections (DIME): Public version 4.0
Abstract
The Database on Ideology, Money in Politics, and Elections (DIME) provides a general resource for the study of campaign finance and ideology in American politics. The database was developed as part an on-going effort to construct a comprehensive ideological mapping of political elites, interest groups, and donors. Constructing the database required a large-scale effort to compile, clean, and process data on contribution records, candidate characteristics, and election outcomes from various sources. The current database contains over 850 million itemized political contributions made by individuals and organizations to local, state, and federal elections covering from 1979 to 2024. A corresponding database of candidates and committees provides additional information on state and federal elections.
The included measures of ideology have been extensively validated across several studies spanning a variety of institutional settings and types of actors. A compendium of these validation results can be accessed here.
⬇️ Data Downloads
1. Aggregate Data (CFscores)
Complete files for candidates and donors across all years.
- Recipients/Candidates (1979-2024):
Download .csv.gz | Download .rdata - Individual Donors/PACs (1979-2024):
Download .csv.gz | Download .rdata
2. Itemized Contribution Records (By Year)
Raw contribution data files. Click a year to download the .csv.gz file.
Note: The itemized contribution records exclude all records retrieved from the Center for Responsive Politics/NIMSP database. Contact [email protected] to request access to these data for strictly academic use.
3. Other Formats & Groupings
| Grouped by Office | President | Governor | Judicial |
| Sparse Matrix | dime_mimp_1979_2024.rdata (Contribution amounts) |
| SQLite Database | Download Full SQLite DB (v4.0) See example R script for interfacing. |
| Full Candidate/Recipient File | Download .csv.gz | Download .rdata |
Introduction & Features
The database is intended to make data on campaign finance and elections more centralized, accessible, and versatile. Main value-added features include:
- Data Processing Names, addresses, and occupation and employer titles have been cleaned and standardized.
- Unique Identifiers Entity resolution techniques were used to assign unique IDs for all individual and institutional donors. This makes it possible to track giving by individuals across election cycles and levels of government.
- Geocoding Each record has been geocoded and placed into congressional districts using a scheme that assigns consistent coordinates even when donors report varying address completeness.
- Ideological Measures Common-space DIME scores (CFscores) allow for direct distance comparisons of ideal points for state and federal actors. The database includes estimates for 156k+ candidates, 37k+ committees, and 36M+ individual donors.
Curated Datasets of Political Elites
Contribution records have been matched onto other publicly available databases. (Note: Some datasets compiled using previous DIME versions).
- Federal Court Judges (Updated through 2024) (Data)
- Fortune 500 Directors and CEOs (Data)
- State Supreme Court Justices (Data)
- Executive Appointees to Federal Agencies (Data)
- Medical Professionals (Data)
Data Use Agreement (ODC-BY 1.0)
You are free to Share, Create, and Adapt this data, provided you Attribute the data in the manner specified in the license. Read full license text.