TruthMark
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Government accountability

Verify a politician through the official source

Past or present, federal or state. TruthMark does not aggregate political records — we direct you to the regulator that authoritatively publishes the data, then to Ballotpedia for neutral biographical and electoral context. Why we do it this way →

Strict neutrality. Both parties equally covered. No editorial commentary. Each jurisdiction has three distinct sources because they cover different things — campaign finance (who funded the campaign), ethics (financial disclosures and conflicts of interest), and Ballotpedia (neutral biographical and electoral context). How we vet sources →

Full integration

California — three official sources

Campaign finance, ethics disclosures, and Ballotpedia. Each covers different things — open the one that matches your question.

  • Campaign financeOpen ↗

    California Secretary of State — Cal-Access

    Cal-Access is the official portal for state-candidate, ballot-measure, and lobbyist filings; data is filer-supplied and update cadence depends on each filer's reporting deadline. Local-candidate filings (city council, school board) generally remain with the local clerk.

  • Ethics / disclosuresOpen ↗

    California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC)

    The FPPC enforces the Political Reform Act and publishes Statement of Economic Interests (Form 700) financial-interest filings, gift and travel reports, and lobbyist registrations for state officeholders, candidates, and many local officials. Some Form 700 filings live with the local agency that received them, not on the FPPC site.

  • BallotpediaOpen ↗

    Ballotpedia California

    State portal page links to election history, current officeholder bios, ballot measures, redistricting maps, and partisan composition tables. Useful as a neutral starting reference; not authoritative for filings.

Federal cross-reference (highest priority)

Federal accountability resources

Seven authoritative federal sources for verifying members of Congress, federal candidates, and historical federal officeholders. The first five accept a name search via URL; House Clerk and Senate eFD are gated POST forms.

  • FEC Candidate & Committee Lookup

    Open ↗

    Federal Election Commission

    Official federal campaign-finance database for candidates for U.S. House, Senate, and President plus their authorized committees and PACs. Covers federal races only — not state or local offices.

  • OpenSecrets Profiles

    Open ↗

    Center for Responsive Politics (OpenSecrets.org)

    NGO research portal that aggregates FEC and lobbying data into candidate, member-of-Congress, and PAC profiles. Editorial selection and methodology are theirs, not the government's; treat as a secondary research resource.

  • House Financial Disclosures

    Open ↗

    U.S. House Office of the Clerk

    Official annual and periodic transaction reports (PTRs) for U.S. House members, candidates, and senior staff. The portal uses a POST form for searching, so name-aware GET deep-linking is not supported — users land on the search page and submit the form.

  • Senate Electronic Financial Disclosures (eFD)

    Open ↗

    U.S. Senate Office of Public Records

    Official annual and periodic-transaction filings for U.S. senators, candidates, and senior staff. The portal requires accepting a click-through agreement before any search and does not accept GET name parameters.

  • GovTrack Member Voting Records

    Open ↗

    GovTrack.us (Civic Impulse, LLC)

    NGO portal that publishes structured voting records, sponsored bills, and committee assignments for every member of Congress. Roll-call data is sourced from Clerk.House.gov and Senate.gov; analyses and ideology scores are GovTrack's own.

  • Ballotpedia

    Open ↗

    Ballotpedia (Lucy Burns Institute)

    Nonpartisan encyclopedia of American politics covering elected officials, candidates, ballot measures, and elections at federal, state, and local levels. Useful for biographical and electoral context, including past officeholders; not authoritative for filings.

  • Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress

    Open ↗

    Library of Congress / U.S. Congress (Bioguide)

    Official biographical record of every person who has served in the U.S. Congress from 1774 to the present. Comprehensive for historical figures; does not include campaign-finance or voting-record data.

Past officeholders

Looking up someone no longer in office?

Use Ballotpedia and the Library of Congress Bioguide for historical federal officials (every U.S. Congress member back to 1774), and state archives — typically the state library, state archives division, or Secretary of State's historical-records office — for past state-level officials. State campaign-finance portals retain filings for varying periods (some 7 years, some permanent); the regulator's site explains its retention rules.

Integrated state portals

States with fuller TruthMark integration (coverage notes per sub-resource). For all 50 states + DC + territories, see the full directory.

Don't see your jurisdiction in the integrated list? Browse the full 50-state + DC + territory directory →

Data via state-run campaign-finance and ethics regulators, Ballotpedia (Lucy Burns Institute, neutral encyclopedia), and federal sources (FEC, OpenSecrets, House Clerk, Senate eFD, GovTrack, Library of Congress Bioguide).

See also: Full directory · Methodology · Lobbying module · Congress (current members search)