Chicago Lobbyist Compensation Reports

Lobbying-related compensation received by registered lobbyists as reported in their quarterly reports to the Chicago Board of Ethics. The dataset includes details on lobbyist identities, their clients, and the amounts of compensation reported for specific time periods. It is available on multiple government data platforms, indicating its role in public transparency.

Use Cases

• Tracking lobbying expenditure by client using CLIENT_NAME and COMPENSATION_AMOUNT
• Analyzing lobbying activity by individual lobbyist using LOBBYIST_FIRST_NAME, LOBBYIST_LAST_NAME, and LOBBYIST_ID
• Examining quarterly reporting trends using PERIOD_START and PERIOD_END
• Linking compensation records to specific reporting filings using COMPENSATION_ID

Strengths

• Provides specific financial figures via the COMPENSATION_AMOUNT column
• Contains detailed entity identifiers for both lobbyists (LOBBYIST_ID) and clients (CLIENT_ID)
• Available in multiple structured formats (CSV, JSON, XML) across platforms

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, dataset size, and license are not provided by any source
• The last updated dates conflict between sources, with one showing 2026-05-28 and another 2026-04-12
• Column information is incomplete for the datagov platform source

Provenance

Source

Chicago Board of Ethics, via data.cityofchicago.org

Collection Method

Quarterly reports filed by registered lobbyists

Freshness

Last updated dates range from 2026-04-12 to 2026-05-28.

Geography

Chicago, Illinois, USA