Washington State Lobbyist Compensation Summary for the Last 16 Years

Washington State Public Disclosure Commission data on lobbying organizations and their total reported compensation and expenses. The dataset covers the prior 16 years plus the current election year, with records before 2016 available in a separate dataset. It is a best-effort compilation that may contain incomplete or incorrect information, with original reports accessible for verification.

Use Cases

• Tracking lobbying expenditure trends over time based on the 16-year coverage.
• Analyzing reporting format transitions based on the 'use_categories' field indicating 'new', 'legacy', or 'mixed' submissions.
• Investigating the financial activity of specific lobbying organizations based on annual totals.
• Comparing lobbying data across different reporting periods based on the format change noted as of October 30, 2024.

Strengths

• Covers a 16-year time range plus the current election year, providing longitudinal data.
• Includes a field ('use_categories') that clarifies data structure changes for submissions.
• Available in multiple machine-readable formats: CSV, JSON, RDF, and XML.

Limitations

• Row count and column definitions are unknown, which limits suitability assessment.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Explicitly noted as a best-effort compilation that may contain incomplete or incorrect information.

Provenance

Source

State of Washington, Public Disclosure Commission.

Collection Method

Compiled from mandatory disclosure reports (L2 forms) filed by lobbying organizations.

Time Range

Prior 16 years plus the current election year.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-22 03:11:41.406753; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Washington State, USA.