# KLEC Watch — llms.txt

> Searchable aggregation of Kentucky legislative lobbying disclosures
> (Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission public reports), 2015–present.
> 11 covered years, ~2,100 employers, ~1,500 lobbyists, ~$223M in reported spend.
> Sibling site of KREF Watch (https://krefwatch.com — campaign finance).
> An independent project of The Lexington Times (https://lexingtonky.news).
> Not affiliated with the Commission.

## Open JSON data API (static, CORS-open, no auth, no key)

All site data is plain JSON under `https://klecwatch.com/data/`:

- `/data/years.json` — index of covered years (totals, employer/agent/bill counts, `complete` flag + `note` for partial years, `generatedAt`, `gaps`).
- `/data/y/<year>/summary.json` — KPIs, topEmployers, topAgents (lobbyists), topIndustries, monthly series.
- `/data/y/<year>/employers.json` — every employer: key, name, industry, total, comp, other, monthly series, agents hired (slug + comp), bills lobbied (2025+ only). Sorted by total desc (~500 KB).
- `/data/y/<year>/agents.json` — every lobbyist ("legislative agent"): slug, name, total compensation, clients (employer key + comp). Sorted by total desc (~300 KB).
- `/data/y/<year>/bills.json` — **2025 and 2026 only**: every bill number named in disclosures, with the employers that lobbied it. Sorted by employer count desc.
- `/data/employers-index.json` — every employer across all years with per-year totals (`years: {"2015": ..., ...}`). Use this to find an employer's key + trace it over time.
- `/data/agents-index.json` — same for lobbyists, keyed by slug.
- `/data/kref-links.json` — employers that ALSO appear in KREF Watch campaign-finance data: `{<employerKey>: {date, total}}` → campaign giving by people/PACs tied to that employer at `https://krefwatch.com/e/<date>/employers/<slugified-key>`.

Money semantics: `comp` = agent compensation (what the employer paid lobbyists); `other` = other reported expenses (receptions, events, advertising — usually small); `total` = comp + other as reported to KLEC.

Typical flows:
- "Who spent the most lobbying Frankfort in X year?" → `/data/y/<year>/summary.json` → `topEmployers`
- "How much has <company> spent lobbying?" → `/data/employers-index.json` (find key + years) → `/data/y/<year>/employers.json`
- "Who are <lobbyist>'s clients?" → `/data/agents-index.json` (find slug) → `/data/y/<year>/agents.json`
- "Who lobbied HB 500?" → `/data/y/2026/bills.json` (2025/2026 only)
- "Does this employer also give campaign money?" → `/data/kref-links.json`

## Agent guide

- `https://klecwatch.com/skill.md` — task-oriented guide for AI agents using this data.

## Caveats (important for accurate reporting)

- **2018 is missing entirely** (no archived snapshot survives) and **2017 covers only Q1** (the 2017 session). The current year is in progress; `complete:false` + `note` in years.json flag both cases.
- **Bills are extracted from free-text disclosures.** Employers describe lobbying topics in prose; only explicit bill numbers are indexed. Absence from a bill's page does not mean an employer didn't lobby the topic. Bill data exists for 2025–2026 only.
- **Agent names were flipped heuristically.** KLEC publishes Last-First ("Babbage Robert A"); the pipeline flips to First-Last. Compound surnames can come out wrong — verify spelling against KLEC originals.
- **Employer spellings are normalized heuristically** so filings group across years; the canonical `key` is what links records.
- Filings lag: KLEC reporting periods close on a schedule; recent months are incomplete until the next period posts. Dataset build date is `generatedAt` in `/data/years.json`.
- Amounts are as reported by employers and agents; KLEC publishes them without audit. Verify against KLEC originals (https://klec.ky.gov/Reports) before publication.
- Lobbying spend ≠ campaign contributions. Campaign finance is the sibling site: https://krefwatch.com (`/llms.txt` there).

## Source code

Fully open source (pipeline + frontend): https://github.com/paul-codes-1/klecwatch

## Contact

editor@lexingtonky.news · The Lexington Times · https://lexingtonky.news