BERKELEY, CA: $105.0M on 390,864 FEC receipts

Reading $104,952,206 as a city-string roll-up

The headline pair is $104,952,206 and 390,864 lines. The implied average is about $269. Cite both numbers. Quoting only the dollars drops the line-count shape of the Berkeley book.

Alameda County’s Berkeley string is separate from Oakland on the FEC city key. Keep the two books apart. Filers typed BERKELEY in the city field. LobbyVault summed rows with that string and state CA. The city total can include a PAC or joint-fundraising committee address when that is the city filers typed. LobbyVault does not recode those rows out of the city string.

If a newsroom map paints Berkeley together with Oakland and Albany, the FEC file still splits them. El Cerrito too. This extract’s only city total is $104,952,206 on 390,864 BERKELEY, CA rows, mean near $269.

Why BERKELEY on the receipt is not a census of Berkeley

Searchers often want “how much did people in Berkeley give.” The honest citation is narrower: itemized federal receipts with contributor city BERKELEY, CA total $104,952,206 across 390,864 contributions. Dropping “itemized” and “contributor city” inflates the claim.

Party is not in this packet. Do not attach a partisan reading to $104,952,206. Occupation and employer may appear on named receipts on the city hub; they are not rolled up here.

Outside the Berkeley itemized book

$104,952,206 is not spending by Berkeley candidates. A candidate who lives in Berkeley can raise money from other cities. A donor row tagged BERKELEY, CA can go to a committee anywhere.

A mean near $269 does not describe a median resident of Berkeley. Means move with a few large lines.

Postal confusion with Oakland, Albany, or El Cerrito is why the city field is a poor residency proxy. $104,952,206 counts rows that stored BERKELEY, CA in state CA. 390,864 lines. About $269 each. Neighbor names need their own hubs.

Berkeley’s high line count

Berkeley is a volume book on this extract: 390,864 lines produce $104,952,206, a mean near $269. Many itemized rows, smaller average line. Volume is not the same as unique people.

Comparing Berkeley’s mean to another city is only valid on the same series: contributor city, itemized federal receipts. Mixing in state data breaks the comparison.

A Berkeley total of $104,952,206 does not absorb Oakland, Albany, or El Cerrito. Those names are other city strings when filers typed them. State CA stays on the citation so BERKELEY, CA is not merged with a same-named place elsewhere. The 390,864 lines and the mean near $269 describe this key only.

City total versus postal codes in CA

390,864 city-field lines can spread across many ZIPs or cluster in a few. This packet does not list those ZIPs. Open the ZIP directory and the live Berkeley hub rather than guessing the split.

After an amendment wave, recheck both the city hub and any ZIP you compared. Snapshots drift independently.

Because this packet carries only city, state, dollar total, and contribution count, every other story about Berkeley politics sits outside the extract. That includes candidate quality, issue fights, and local election results. Those subjects have other documents. This guide stays on the two numbers FEC.gov supplied for the city field.

Keep Oakland, Albany, and El Cerrito off the Berkeley citation unless the receipt actually stored those cities. $104,952,206 is the BERKELEY, CA string alone. 390,864 itemized rows and about $269 per row are the shape of that string, not of the metro map.

Source tables for $104,952,206

A mean of about $269 is division of $104,952,206 by 390,864. It is fair to report as arithmetic. It is not fair to report as a typical resident of Berkeley.

Internal links on this page go only to the Berkeley city hub, the all-cities directory, and the ZIP directory. Those are the three paths that match this packet.

Berkeley’s $104,952,206 across 390,864 contributions is a high-volume East Bay city field, mean near $269. Oakland is next door on the map and separate on the FEC key. Albany and El Cerrito are other strings. Alameda County is not summed here. University geography orients readers; this packet has no student or employer split. The 390,864-line count is itemized federal rows tagged BERKELEY, CA. Repeat gifts add rows. California state-office receipts are omitted. A lower mean plus a long line list is a volume shape, not a turnout score. Cite $104,952,206 with 390,864 from FEC.gov aggregates indexed on LobbyVault.

Questions

How much is itemized from contributor city Berkeley?

FEC.gov itemized receipts listing contributor city BERKELEY, CA total $104,952,206 across 390,864 contributions in the LobbyVault aggregate. That figure is a city-string roll-up of federal Schedule A rows, not a unique-donor count and not a census of people who live in Berkeley. Unitemized gifts sit outside it.

What does the Berkeley contribution count mean?

LobbyVault counts 390,864 itemized contributions for BERKELEY, CA. That is a line count, not a headcount of unique people. Repeat gifts, redesignations, and memo entries can add rows without adding new donors. This packet does not publish a unique-donor figure, so 390,864 should not be quoted as a population. The matching dollar total on the same extract is $104,952,206.

Can committee addresses appear in the Berkeley city total?

No. The city is the contributor-city value on the FEC itemization. Filers typed BERKELEY with state CA. Office addresses and mail that list Berkeley can be part of $104,952,206 when that is the city string on the receipt. LobbyVault does not recode the field into a residential-only book. The 390,864-line count follows the same rule.

Are Berkeley numbers from FEC.gov?

The numbers come from FEC.gov itemized contribution aggregates indexed on LobbyVault: $104,952,206 and 390,864 lines for BERKELEY, CA. Original reports remain on FEC.gov. Unitemized federal gifts and non-federal filings from CA are outside both figures. If a later extract disagrees with this snapshot, the Commission’s filing controls. The mean of about $269 is arithmetic from those two packet facts.