[Note: a special thank you to Keri Miksza, chair of the Indiana Coalition for Public Education of Monroe County for her work on this post]

How to research campaign funding for local school board elections 

Each county operates differently when it comes to making these reports publicly available. You need to do a bit of digging. A call to a county clerk asking if these reports are accessible online or in a county office is a good start. 

Below are some links to where to access campaign filings in several counties. October 21st  was the most recent deadline, so new reports should be popping up soon. The reports you want to look for are CFA 4 and CFA 11. 

Why look? Well, it’s important to follow the money. Is a candidate running to represent your community or outside interests? ICPE has pointed out how the money pouring into these races affects outcomes. Our friends at ICPE Monroe County had a blogpost last year pointing out how over $1.5 million was spent for privatization in the 2020 election in Indiana. Our blog post on the same subject from 2020 also showed how one’s “funders reflect your agenda.” And here is an example from this election cycle:  the image above shows just one page of a freshly-filed campaign finance report for an IPS school board candidate. 

How to research campaign funding for local elections:

Each county operates differently when it comes to making these reports publicly available. You need to do a bit of digging. A call to a county clerk asking if these reports are accessible online or in a county office is a good start.

Below are some links to where to access campaign filings in various counties. 10/21 was the most recent deadline, so new reports should be popping up. The reports you want to look for are CFA 4 and CFA 11.

Why look? Well, it’s important to follow the money. Is a candidate running to represent your community or outside interests? For example, the image here shows 1 page of a freshly filed campaign finance report for an IPS school board candidate. That a lot of money from PACs who receive money from out of state interests like the Waltons and Reed Hastings. And that is not all of the campaign contributions in the candidate’s CFA 4 and 11 reports.

Hamilton County
https://secure2.hamiltoncounty.in.gov/CampaignFinance/

Allen County
https://allencountyinvoters.gov/campaign-finance-filings…/

Monroe County
https://www.co.monroe.in.us/egov/apps/document/center.gov

Marion County
https://www.indy.gov/work…/search-campaign-finance-records

Hard to find the filings. Probably not online.
Boone County
https://boonecounty.in.gov/…/Ele…/Candidate-Filing-Info/

Jefferson County
https://jeffersoncounty.in.gov/376/Voter-Registration-Office

Lake County
https://lakecounty.in.gov/departments/voters

There are 92 counties in Indiana. Check out this Facebook post for more discussion.