Mapping a lobbying landscape

• “artificial intelligence” (the issue in double quotes; quoted phrases, OR, and a leading dash for NOT work exactly as they do on lda.gov)
• client: Acme Corp
• registrant: Capitol Partners LLC

What it never does: filings state who lobbied on what, never why or for which side, so the mapper never characterizes motive, alignment, or opposition, describes coalition only as entities that filed on the same issue, renders amounts exactly as filed (per period, labeled as income or expenses, never summed into totals the record does not state), and never advises on engaging, retaining, or countering anyone.

The most recently posted matching filings are collapsed into registrant-client engagements, because the same engagement files repeatedly and within a filing period the latest-posted filing supersedes what it amends. Each engagement shows its issue areas, its specific-issues text exactly as filed, the government entities contacted, and a link to the filing itself. Disclosures are filed quarterly, so very recent activity may not appear yet, and the mapper says so.

It pairs with the Docket Analyzer by hand, on purpose: when a docket analysis lists a submitter organization you want to understand, paste its name into client: or registrant: here. Sonata deliberately never matches the two records automatically, because comment submitters name themselves in free text and lobbying filers write their own names, so an automated match could name the wrong organization.