Methodology

Data Sources

Metro Council Watch aggregates public data from multiple official sources to provide a comprehensive view of campaign finance activity:

Davidson County Election Commission (DCEC) — Campaign finance contribution records via the EasyVote Campaign Finance System API and manually processed PDF disclosure forms
Nashville Metro Clerk / Legistar — Council member information and legislative records
U.S. Census Bureau Geocoding API — Address verification and geographic classification
Metro Nashville GIS — Council district boundary data for point-in-polygon location lookups

Data Extraction Process

Campaign finance data is collected through two complementary methods:

1. DCEC API: We query the Davidson County Election Commission's public API by candidate name to retrieve recent contribution records. Each contribution includes the donor name, address, date, and amount.

2. PDF Disclosure Processing: For complete historical data, we manually process the official campaign finance disclosure PDFs filed with DCEC. This captures contributions that may not appear in the API, including itemized details like employer and occupation.

Duplicate contributions are detected using a combination of member ID, contributor name, amount, and date to prevent double-counting across data sources.

Finance Grade Calculation

Each council member receives a letter grade (A through F) based on where their campaign contributions originate. The grade reflects the degree to which a member is funded by local constituents versus outside interests.

Location Weighting:

In-District: 100% weight — Direct support from constituents the member represents
Nashville (outside district): 75% weight — Local support from elsewhere in Davidson County
Tennessee (outside Nashville): 50% weight — Statewide interest
Out of State: -75% weight — External influence, treated as a negative factor

Grade Thresholds:

A (≥80%): Strong local support
B (≥65%): Good local support
C (≥50%): Mixed local and outside funding
D (≥30%): Mostly outside support
F (<30%): Minimal local support

Note: Members who have raised $0 receive an "A+" grade. Members in the current election cycle with less than $5,000 raised show "N/A" until sufficient data is available.

Note: In-kind contributions (non-monetary donations of goods, services, or other items of value) are included in all totals and grade calculations at their reported monetary value. Tennessee campaign finance law requires candidates to report in-kind contributions at fair market value, so they are treated identically to cash contributions for the purposes of location weighting and grade calculation.

Donation Type Categories

Contributions are automatically classified into categories based on pattern matching of contributor names and organization indicators:

Individual: Personal donations from people (the most common type)
PAC: Political Action Committees and advocacy organizations
Union: Labor organizations (SEIU, IBEW, Teamsters, etc.)
Campaign Committee: Other politicians' campaign funds ("Friends of...", etc.)
Party: Political party organizations (Democratic Party, Republican Party)
Corporate: Businesses and companies (LLC, Inc., Corp., etc.)
Self: Candidate self-funding (when the contributor name matches the council member)

Location Classification

Each contribution is classified by its geographic origin:

District: The contributor's address is within the council member's specific district (for at-large members, this includes all of Davidson County)
Nashville: Davidson County, but outside the member's district
Tennessee: Within Tennessee but outside Davidson County
Out of State: Outside Tennessee
Unknown: Bulk filings or unitemized contributions where location cannot be determined

Note: Political organizations (PACs, unions, campaign committees) are never classified as "District" because they represent organizational interests rather than constituent support, even when headquartered locally.

Data Limitations

We believe in transparency about what our data can and cannot show:

Bulk filings: Some disclosure forms list contributions as "See Attached" without providing the attached itemization. These contributions are included in totals but excluded from grade calculations since we cannot determine their source.
Unitemized contributions: Small donations reported as lump sums without individual donor details are classified as "Unknown" location.
API limitations: The DCEC API returns approximately 300 recent contributions per candidate. We supplement with manual PDF processing for completeness.
Address accuracy: Location classification depends on the accuracy of addresses provided in filings. We use Census Bureau geocoding when possible, with ZIP code fallback for ambiguous addresses.
Individual donor privacy: Individual donors are shown as first name and last initial (e.g., "Davis H.") to protect privacy while maintaining transparency.

Update Frequency

Data is updated periodically as new campaign finance disclosures become available from DCEC. The 2023 election cycle data is considered complete. The 2027 cycle data is updated as new filings are processed.

For the most authoritative and up-to-date information, we encourage users to consult the official records at the Davidson County Election Commission.

Changelog

A record of significant data updates and methodology changes:

March 16, 2025
Added meeting attendance tracking synced from Legistar roll call data, with attendance stats and missed meetings shown on each member's Activity tab. Added legislation detail pages with procedural timelines, vote history, sponsors, and attachments. Member profile pages now feature an overview tab with summary cards, a sidebar with bios and social links, and voting bloc analysis showing top allies weighted by vote contestedness. Vote tallies are now computed from actual roll call records. Legislation titles are summarized for readability. Vote filters and tab state persist in the URL.
March 12, 2025
Raised the minimum fundraising threshold for finance grades from $5,000 to $10,000. Members who have raised less than $10,000 in a cycle will now show "Grade Pending" instead of receiving a letter grade. This prevents volatile grades for members with very low fundraising totals where a single donation can swing the score dramatically.
March 10, 2025
At-large member pages now show Nashville-specific funding labels ("Nashville" and "Outside Nashville") instead of the district-oriented labels used for district members. Individual donor names are now displayed as "First L." format across all contribution tables, replacing the previous "Small Donor" label. Fixed a bug where some individual donors were incorrectly labeled as "Self" contributions; this did not affect any member's grade.
March 5, 2025
Improved PAC location classification. Statewide PACs (those with "Tennessee" or "TN" in their name) are now categorized as "Tennessee" regardless of their mailing address. Also fixed several Nashville-based PACs that were incorrectly categorized as "Tennessee". As a result of these corrections, Brandon Taylor's 2023 finance grade changed from B to C.
February 18, 2025
Added "Filing" filter to contributions table on profile pages, allowing users to view contributions from a specific disclosure. Added "Recently Processed Disclosures" table to homepage showing the 10 most recent filings with contribution counts and totals.
February 7, 2025
Added transition badge display for 2027 cycle candidates seeking different offices. Badges now show the transition (e.g., "D-24 → D-6") when a member is running for a different position than they currently hold.
February 4, 2025
Updated election cycle assignment to use the election date declared in each filing (Field 3) rather than contribution dates. This ensures contributions are correctly attributed to the election cycle they were raised for. Backfilled all existing filings with corrected election cycles.
January 2025
Initial launch with 2023 election cycle data for all 40 council members. Added 2027 election cycle tracking for members who have begun fundraising.

Questions or Corrections?

If you believe any data is inaccurate or have questions about our methodology, please contact us at [email protected].