Washington State Lobbyist Reports: Registrations, Expenditures, and Contributions

16 years plus the current election year of lobbyist disclosure filings from the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission. The dataset includes five report types: Lobbyist/Client/Contract Registration (L1), Monthly Expenditure (L2), Client's Annual Report (L3), Employer Contributions (L3C), and Government Agency Lobbying (L5), along with amendments. This is a best-effort compilation where original reports remain the authoritative source for verification.

Use Cases

• Tracking lobbying firm activity over time using firm_id, filer_name, and receipt_date.
• Analyzing expenditure cycles for specific clients using client_id, report_through, and report_data.
• Identifying amended or superseded reports using amends_report, amended_by_report, and version.
• Categorizing filers and report types using filer_type, report_from, and year.
• Linking to original disclosure documents for verification using the url and entity_id.

Strengths

• Covers a significant time span: the prior 16 years plus the current election year.
• Contains multiple, specific report types (L1, L2, L3, L3C, L5) detailing different aspects of lobbying.
• Includes amendment history, allowing tracking of report corrections and updates.
• Is hosted on multiple government platforms (Socrata, Data.gov), indicating official provenance and cross-platform availability.

Limitations

• Metadata on row count, size, license, and author is absent or conflicting across all provided sources.
• Pre-2016 records are stored in separate datasets, requiring joins for a complete historical view.
• Documentation explicitly states the data is a best-effort compilation that may contain incomplete or incorrect information.

Provenance

Source

Washington State Public Disclosure Commission

Collection Method

Best-effort compilation of statutory disclosure filings submitted by lobbyists and their clients.

Time Range

16 years prior to the current year, plus the current election year.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-11 23:46:26 on Socrata.

Geography

Washington State, USA