An independent audit of TrackAIPAC's claim that Jasmine Crockett received $86,112 from "the pro-Israel lobby and their mega donors."
This repo contains the Python scripts, output data, and methodology used to test that claim against raw FEC bulk data. The full analysis is published at thebnb.show/blog/trackaipac-methodology-audit.
TrackAIPAC published a graphic attributing $86,112 to Jasmine Crockett from pro-Israel "bundlers" and cited FEC data as the source. I downloaded the raw FEC bulk data files (6+ GB across four election cycles), wrote scripts to cross-reference individual donors, and attempted to reproduce their number.
The scripts also check for direct PAC-to-candidate contributions, run the same analysis on James Talarico's campaign for comparison, and examine the Lone Star Rising Super PAC's funding sources.
- TrackAIPAC claimed $86,112 was "SPENT BY THE PRO-ISRAEL LOBBY AND THEIR MEGA DONORS." The FEC data shows this money came from 68 regular citizens who independently donated to Crockett's campaign and also, separately, donated to pro-Israel PACs. This is normal campaign finance activity, not lobby spending.
- TrackAIPAC labeled these donations as "Bundlers." Under federal law (11 CFR 104.22), bundling is when a registered lobbyist collects contributions from other people and delivers them to a campaign. None of that happened here. In my opinion, this is a misrepresentation of what the data shows.
- Zero direct contributions from any of the 52 pro-Israel PACs to Crockett's campaign committee
- Talarico's 15-year friend ran Lone Star Rising PAC, which raised $6.5 million ($3.75M from dark money) and spent $3.6 million on independent expenditures against Crockett
| Script | Purpose |
|---|---|
fec_bundler_audit.py |
First pass: name-only matching of Crockett donors against 52 pro-Israel PAC donors |
fec_audit_part2.py |
Tighter matching (name + zip5) plus direct PAC-to-candidate check |
fec_audit_comparison.py |
Side-by-side Crockett vs Talarico comparison |
fec_audit_final.py |
Crockett donation dates by year, Lone Star Rising PAC individual donors, pro-Israel cross-reference |
fec_lsr_full.py |
Lone Star Rising PAC full money flow from committee-to-committee and operating expenditure files |
| File | Contents |
|---|---|
bundler_audit_results.csv |
Name-only matched donors (first pass) |
donor_crossref_name_zip.csv |
Name + zip matched donors with PAC-side details |
crossref_jasmine_crockett.csv |
Crockett matched donors (comparison run) |
crossref_james_talarico.csv |
Talarico matched donors (comparison run) |
crockett_matched_by_date.csv |
Crockett matched donations broken down by date |
crockett_unmatched_donors.csv |
Crockett donors with no pro-Israel PAC match |
pac_direct_contributions.csv |
Direct pro-Israel PAC contributions to Crockett (empty — zero found) |
lone_star_rising_donors.csv |
Lone Star Rising PAC individual donors with pro-Israel cross-reference |
lone_star_rising_full.csv |
Lone Star Rising PAC full transaction history |
- Python 3
- pandas (
pip install pandas) - Disk space for FEC bulk files (~6 GB compressed, larger uncompressed)
Go to fec.gov/data/browse-data and click "Download Bulk Data."
Download these files for each cycle you want to analyze (2019-2020 through 2025-2026):
- Contributions by individuals — individual donor records (itcont files)
- Contributions from committees to candidates & independent expenditures — PAC-to-candidate transfers (itpas2 files)
- Any transaction from one committee to another — committee-to-committee transfers (itoth files)
- Operating expenditures — committee spending (oppexp files)
Unzip all files into a single directory. The files are pipe-delimited .txt files.
Each script takes the data directory as an argument:
python fec_bundler_audit.py /path/to/your/fec-data/
python fec_audit_part2.py /path/to/your/fec-data/
python fec_audit_comparison.py /path/to/your/fec-data/
python fec_audit_final.py /path/to/your/fec-data/
python fec_lsr_full.py /path/to/your/fec-data/
Expect each script to take 10-20 minutes depending on your machine. The bulk files are large.
Scripts print results to the terminal and save detailed CSVs to the same data directory.
| Entity | Committee ID | Candidate ID |
|---|---|---|
| Jasmine Crockett (Jasmine For Us) | C00795450 | H2TX30178 |
| James Talarico (Talarico For Texas) | C00919084 | S6TX00479 |
| Lone Star Rising PAC | C00918268 | — |
| AIPAC PAC | C00797670 | — |
| JStreetPAC | C00441949 | — |
| DMFI PAC | C00710848 | — |
| Pro-Israel America PAC | C00699470 | — |
| RJC PAC | C00345132 | — |
| NorPAC | C00247403 | — |
| United Democracy Project | C00799031 | — |
| JAC | C00139659 | — |
The full list of all 52 pro-Israel PAC committee IDs is in each script.
TrackAIPAC labels their donor cross-reference as "bundlers." Under federal law (11 CFR 104.22, 52 U.S.C. 30104(i)), bundling is when a registered federal lobbyist or lobbyist-controlled PAC collects contributions from other people and delivers them to a candidate's campaign. It requires physical collection or forwarding of contributions, mandatory disclosure on FEC Form 3L, and the bundler must be a registered federal lobbyist. The 2026 disclosure threshold is $24,000.
FEC bundling definition: fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/lobbyist-bundling-disclosure
TrackAIPAC's pro-Israel PAC list (Google Sheet): linked from trackaipac.com/congress
All data comes from the Federal Election Commission: fec.gov
- Bulk data downloads: fec.gov/data/browse-data
- Committee lookup: fec.gov/data/committees
- Candidate lookup: fec.gov/data/candidates
Nick Taylor — Revlytiq — The Build & Breakdown
This analysis represents my independent assessment based on publicly available FEC data. All opinions expressed are my own. I welcome corrections supported by FEC data.