Texas GOP U.S. Senate Super PAC Expenditures (For or Against)

tx_gopussen_superpac_expends.py

import urllib
import json
import csv
import nytapikey

BASE_URI = "http://api.nytimes.com/svc/elections/us/v3/finances/2012"
API_KEY = nytapikey.key  # keeping my key warm and safe

dewhurst_id = "S2TX00361"
cruz_id = "S2TX00312"

results_file = open("ussen_results.csv", "wb")
writer = csv.writer(results_file)
writer.writerow(["candidate",
                 "fec_committee_name",
                 "amount",
                 "support_or_oppose",
                 "date",
                 "payee",
                 "purpose",
                 "fec_uri",
                 "super_pac_status"])

superpac_store = {}  # to prevent wasting API calls, store super PAC true/false


def check_for_superpac(id):
    if not id in superpac_store:
        request_url = BASE_URI + "/committees/" + id + ".json?api-key=" + API_KEY
        response = urllib.urlopen(request_url).read()
        try:
            response = json.loads(response)["results"][0]["super_pac"]
        except ValueError:  # if the NYT API is missing something, you make the call
            response = None

        superpac_store[id] = response
        payload = response

    else:
        payload = superpac_store[id]

    return payload


def get_independ_expend(cand, id, offset):
    request_url = BASE_URI + "/candidates/" + id + "/independent_expenditures.json?api-key=" + API_KEY
    if offset > 0:
        request_url += "&offset=" + str(offset)
    response = json.loads(urllib.urlopen(request_url).read())["results"]
    if not response:
        return
    else:
        for entry in response:
            check_results = check_for_superpac(entry["fec_committee"][entry["fec_committee"].rfind("/") + 1:][:-5])
            if check_results == True or check_results == None:
                result = []
                result.append(cand)
                result.append(entry["fec_committee_name"])
                result.append(entry["amount"])
                result.append(entry["support_or_oppose"])
                result.append(entry["date"])
                result.append(entry["payee"])
                result.append(entry["purpose"])
                result.append(entry["fec_uri"])
                result.append(check_results)

                writer.writerow(result)

        if len(response) == 20:
            new_offset = offset + 20
            get_independ_expend(cand, id, new_offset)


def main():
    get_independ_expend("Dewhurst", dewhurst_id, 0)
    get_independ_expend("Cruz", cruz_id, 0)
    results_file.close()

main()