Entity Lookups

Methods

Search by Name

Search for politicians, individuals, organizations or industries with a given name.

/entities.json

Parameters

Name Required Description
search Required The name to search for. Spaces should be URL encoded or represented as a plus sign (+). There are no logical operators or grouping
type Filter results to a particular type of entity. Possible values are politician, organization, individual or industry.

Example

http://transparencydata.org/api/1.0/entities.json?apikey=YOUR_KEY&search=Barack+Obama&type=politician

Response

[
    {
        name: "Barack Obama (D)",
        count_given: 0,
        firm_income: 0,
        count_lobbied: 0,
        seat: "federal:president",
        total_received: 656313987,
        state: "",
        lobbying_firm: null,
        count_received: 1164442,
        party: "D",
        total_given: 0,
        type: "politician",
        id: "4148b26f6f1c437cb50ea9ca4699417a",
        non_firm_spending: 0,
        is_superpac: null
    },
    {
        name: "OBAMA, BARACK",
        count_given: 0,
        firm_income: 0,
        count_lobbied: 0,
        seat: "state:upper",
        total_received: 445595.36,
        state: "IL",
        lobbying_firm: null,
        count_received: 892,
        party: "D",
        total_given: 0,
        type: "politician",
        id: "97737bb56b6a4211bcc57a837368b1a4",
        non_firm_spending: 0,
        is_superpac: null
    }
]

This call can result in multiple response objects. In this case, we get a hit for President Obama in the context of Illinois Senate races and in presidential elections.

ID Lookup

Crosswalk between several input ID forms and the transparencydata IDs native to this service.

/entities/id_lookup.json

Paramteters

Name Required Description
id Required, if supplied with namespace The entity ID to look up
namespace Required, if supplied with id The type of ID to match. Possible values are:
urn:crp:individual
A CRP ID for an individual contributor or lobbyist.
Begins with U or C.
urn:crp:organization
A CRP ID for an organization.
Begins with D.
urn:crp:recipient
A CRP ID for a politician.
Begins with N.
urn:crp:industry
CRP's 3-letter category order.
urn:crp:subindustry
CRP's 5-letter category code.
urn:nimsp:organization
A NIMSP ID for an organization.
Integer-valued.
urn:nimsp:recipient
A NIMSP ID for a politician.
Integer-valued.
urn:nimsp:subindustry
NIMSP's 5-letter category code.
urn:sunlight: lobbyist_registration_tracker_url
URL of Sunlight's lobbyist registration tracker page.
bioguide_id Required, if namespace and id are omitted. The ID of a member of congress in the Congressional Bioguide. Mutually exclusive to the id/namespace parameters.

Example

http://transparencydata.org/api/1.0/entities/id_lookup.json?apikey=YOUR_KEY&bioguide_id=L000551

Response

[
    {
        "id": "6d1ec9c94ae748c6b86cc250761c6b13"
    }
]

Entity Overview

General information about the given entity.

/entities/:entity_id.json

Parameters

Name Required Description
entity_id Required The transparencydata ID to look up.
cycle Limit contribution totals to the given election cycle(s).

Example

transparencydata.com/api/1.0/entities/97737bb56b6a4211bcc57a837368b1a4.json?apikey=YOUR_KEY

Response

{
    "name": "OBAMA, BARACK",
    "totals": {
        "2004": {
            "faca_committee_count": 0,
            "faca_member_count": 0,
            "regs_submitted_docket_count": 0,
            "earmark_count": 0,
            "regs_docket_count": 0,
            "recipient_amount": 29350.11,
            "fec_summary_count": 0,
            "independent_expenditure_amount": 0,
            "non_firm_spending": 0,
            "grant_count": 0,
            "contract_amount": 0,
            "earmark_amount": 0,
            "loan_count": 0,
            "contract_count": 0,
            "contributor_count": 0,
            "regs_document_count": 0,
            "recipient_count": 44,
            "firm_income": 0,
            "regs_submitted_document_count": 0,
            "loan_amount": 0,
            "epa_actions_count": 0,
            "contractor_misconduct_count": 0,
            "fec_total_raised": 0,
            "lobbying_count": 0,
            "contributor_amount": 0,
            "grant_amount": 0
        }
        ...snip...
    },
    "external_ids": [
        {
            "namespace": "urn:nimsp:recipient",
            "id": "17677"
        }
    ],
    "type": "politician",
    "id": "97737bb56b6a4211bcc57a837368b1a4",
    "metadata": {
        "2004": {
            "district": "IL-13",
            "state": "IL",
            "seat_result": "",
            "district_held": "",
            "seat": "state:upper",
            "seat_held": "",
            "state_held": "",
            "seat_status": "",
            "party": "D"
        },
        ...snip...
        "bio": "<p>Barack Hussein Obama II (i /bəˈrɑːk huːˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/; born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned after his election to the presidency in November 2008.</p><p>A native of Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004.</p>",
        "seat_held": "",
        "source_name": "wikipedia_info",
        "district": "IL-13",
        "federal_politician_entities": [
            {
                "name": "Barack Obama (D)",
                "type": "politician",
                "id": "4148b26f6f1c437cb50ea9ca4699417a"
            }
        ],
        "seat_result": "",
        "district_held": "",
        "seat": "state:upper",
        "state": "IL",
        "bio_url": "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama",
        "state_held": "",
        "seat_status": "",
        "party": "D",
        "entity": "97737bb56b6a4211bcc57a837368b1a4",
        "photo_url": "http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e9/Official_portrait_of_Barack_Obama.jpg/245px-Official_portrait_of_Barack_Obama.jpg"
    }
}