How This Works
This dashboard tracks collected news articles and their source outlets. Date and region filters apply to the charts, coverage table, word associations and source links. A missing value means no observation is available in the selected reporting period.
Coverage and word associations
Each article mentioning a tracked candidate counts once toward that candidate's article total. Article share is the proportion of all tracked article/candidate appearances. An article mentioning both candidates contributes to both. Raw mentions count occurrences in the retained text. Subject, significant and passing are existing mention labels; they do not change article counts. Word associations are extracted by AI and may contain errors. They describe the retained source text, not the monitor's views.
Ballot-measure messaging
Pro messaging supports passage; anti messaging opposes passage; neutral messaging explains the measure without an expressed position toward passage. A mixed article may contribute to more than one series. Uncertain passages, failed extraction and unreviewed drafts are excluded from published messaging counts. A staff reviewer must approve a draft before it contributes to the public charts. The messaging labels do not describe the political position of an outlet or reader.
Race watchlist
The congressional, Assembly and Senate watchlists follow the contests selected for continued November monitoring, with the requested congressional priorities listed first. Inclusion does not imply a close election. LA Mayor remains a separate focus. New race pages count full candidate names and recorded name variants in source text; shared names require nearby office context. Initials stand in for candidate photographs. Historical collection is added in batches, and a quiet chart can reflect an incomplete collection.
Dates and polling
General-election collection begins August 1, 2026. Polling requires a source, field dates, sample size and population. The dashboard uses the latest supplied observation whose field end is within the selected period. Missing polling is left blank; primary polls are not reused for the general-election projects.
The primary archive
The archive uses the original desktop and phone layouts and covers December 1, 2025 through June 2, 2026, inclusive. June 2 was the primary election date. California Secretary of State.
No database backup captured on that day was available. The frozen reconstruction includes retained articles collected before midnight Pacific that day, with word associations and word rules created before the same cutoff. Later edits to older text and mention labels cannot be undone. Its files are stored separately and do not update when collection runs. The archive manifest documents provenance and file checksums.
Limits
Coverage reflects the sources successfully collected, not all published reporting or public opinion. Paywalls, failed retrievals, duplicate publication and incomplete dates can affect counts. Videos are listed in collection totals but do not contribute to article charts. Source links below the coverage table let readers inspect the underlying reporting.