Where the money actually goes

Every flow in the network

Sorted by amount. Column headers re-sort the table. DOC = read off a primary filing · SEC = a transcription · INF = a structural relationship with no traceable dollar.

Which database holds which entity

Four mechanisms that keep the money out of view

1. Amendments are separate documents. Yellow Tree Strategy’s $15,000 is in Amendment 2 to the 2022 Wyoming Way primary report. The base report shows only a summary total with no payee, no date and no purpose. Amendments to a filing can carry material the base filing does not.
2. The filing image is not the data. FEC bulk exports carry a memo_text field naming the ultimate beneficiary that the PDF does not display. Download the CSV, not the picture.
3. The state and federal reports are mirror images. Wyoming itemises $43,000 to thirteen named candidates and lumps $6,387,160.86 as two lines; the FEC itemises 309 non-Wyoming rows and shows the Teton cheques nowhere. Neither is false. No rule requires either to show both halves.
4. The last hop is on paper. The PAC pays the candidate, the candidate pays the consultant, and the candidate’s report is handwritten at the county clerk. Mountain Movement Strategies appears in none of the 309 federal rows because it was never paid by the PAC.

Ranked by whether the records exist yet

1. Middle Fork Strategies, EIN 92-2040834 — $252,000 from Western Futures Fund in 2023. A consulting firm’s name on a 501(c)(4). The closest structural analogue to Mountain Movement Strategies in the network.
2. Western States Strategies, EIN 93-1316666, Portland — $23,500 from WFF, and it appears as a $0.01 amend-add in the Wyoming Way PAC filings.
3. John Ewing for Omaha — $125,000 in April 2025, mayoral race complete, Nebraska ADC holds the full itemised vendor list. A finished race is where a consultant appears whole.
4. Hometown Heroes PAC — $75,000 of its money is 2025 and already filed with Idaho.
5. Wyoming Way PAC, 2022 Primary Amendment 1 — the only document in that series never read. The arithmetic fixes its size at exactly $4,191.36.
6. The Wyoming SOS entity record for Wyoming Way PAC — organiser and registered agent. If Sinclair Communications or Mike May appears, the Jackson post-office box on WFF’s 2022 return stops being a coincidence.

Unidentified

• Wheel Dog PAC — $100,000, Washington DC 20004, no committee ID, shares a ZIP with Montana Freedom PAC’s mailbox.
• Blue Majority Project — $25,000, Washington DC, no committee ID.
• NMM — EIN 87-2460887, Lincoln NE, $200,000. The return gives no expansion of the initials.
• Anchorage Care For… — EIN 92-2004228, $100,000. The name is truncated on the filing itself.

Address clusters

• 3333 Denali Street, Suite 125, Anchorage — Alaska Jobs Coalition ($400,000) and Anchorage School Bond Yes ($50,000). Two EINs, one suite, one funder, one year.
• Missoula 59807 — Big Sky Voters PAC (Box 8853), Montana Values Action Fund (Box 8512) and A Better Big Sky (Box 7134). Three boxes, one portfolio.
• Helena 59604 — Conservatives 4 Montana and Montanans for Responsible Stewardship.
• PO Box 1443, Laramie — Better Wyoming (c3, EIN 47-3490919) and Better Wyoming Action and Research (c4, EIN 99-0790892).
• 30 N Gould Street, Sheridan — Way Back PAC in Suite 4205 and Western Futures Fund in #23616.