OAKLAND, CA: $122.5M on 437,635 FEC receipts

Oakland, CA: the itemized dollar total

Divide $122,533,634 by 437,635 and the average itemized line is about $280. Averages hide mixed line sizes. This packet has no distribution, so $280 is a mean, not a typical resident gift.

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. East Bay Oakland is the city field. Alameda County is not an FEC dimension on this roll-up.

Postal confusion with Berkeley, Alameda, or San Leandro is why the city field is a poor residency proxy. $122,533,634 counts rows that stored OAKLAND, CA in state CA. 437,635 lines. About $280 each. Neighbor names need their own hubs.

Oakland’s high line count

Oakland is a volume book on this extract: 437,635 lines produce $122,533,634, a mean near $280. Many itemized rows, smaller average line. Volume is not the same as unique people.

A later extract can move Oakland across that description if large lines are refunded or if many small lines are added. Recheck $122,533,634 and 437,635 on the hub.

The FEC city field behind OAKLAND, CA

FEC.gov stores whatever city string appeared on the itemized receipt. OAKLAND, CA is that string plus state CA. Recoding rows into a Census place would be a new dataset. This page does not do that recode.

ZIP pages under the same state cut the same series more finely. An Oakland city total is not the sum of every ZIP that postal service maps to Oakland; it is the sum of rows that typed this city string.

An Oakland total of $122,533,634 does not absorb Berkeley, Alameda, or San Leandro. Those names are other city strings when filers typed them. State CA stays on the citation so OAKLAND, CA is not merged with a same-named place elsewhere. The 437,635 lines and the mean near $280 describe this key only.

Finer grain than OAKLAND, CA

Use ZIP pages to see concentration inside a metro without replacing $122,533,634. Adding selected ZIPs and calling the sum “Oakland” is a recode. FEC.gov did not publish that recode on this city packet.

State CA on the city key is required in the citation so Oakland is not confused with a same-named city in another state.

A complete OAKLAND, CA footnote names FEC.gov as the source, names contributor city as the dimension, and prints $122,533,634 and 437,635 as a pair. Leaving off any of those parts turns a public-record total into a slogan. LobbyVault’s job on this page is the pair, the dimension, and the link to the live table.

Keep Berkeley, Alameda, and San Leandro off the Oakland citation unless the receipt actually stored those cities. $122,533,634 is the OAKLAND, CA string alone. 437,635 itemized rows and about $280 per row are the shape of that string, not of the metro map.

Limits of the OAKLAND, CA aggregate

State and local campaigns in CA file under state law. Those receipts are outside $122,533,634 and outside the 437,635 line count. Adding them by hand would mix disclosure systems.

The source for $122,533,634 and 437,635 is FEC.gov aggregates indexed on LobbyVault. If a later bulk file disagrees, the Commission’s filing controls.

A complete OAKLAND, CA citation

Title, H1, and table on the live hub should show the same $122,533,634 and 437,635 this guide cites. If they do not, the hub was rebuilt from a newer extract. Trust the hub over this paragraph.

Guides do not replace filings. Open original reports on FEC.gov when a named receipt on the Oakland hub matters to a story.

Oakland’s $122,533,634 on 437,635 lines is an East Bay volume book, mean near $280. Berkeley is a different city key. San Francisco is a different city key. Do not add East Bay strings and call the sum “Bay Area.” FEC.gov stored city, not region. Alameda County is orientation, not a roll-up dimension. The 437,635-line count can include repeat givers. It is not an Oakland population of donors. California state-office receipts are omitted. Unitemized federal gifts are omitted. ZIP pages split a different field. The Oakland FEC page holds names on this string. Quote $122,533,634 with 437,635 in the same citation.

Questions

What does LobbyVault show for Oakland federal contributions?

FEC.gov itemized receipts listing contributor city OAKLAND, CA total $122,533,634 across 437,635 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 Oakland. Unitemized gifts sit outside it.

How should I read the 437,635 figure for OAKLAND, CA?

LobbyVault counts 437,635 itemized contributions for OAKLAND, 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 437,635 should not be quoted as a population. The matching dollar total on the same extract is $122,533,634.

What city field does FEC use for Oakland?

No. The city is the contributor-city value on the FEC itemization. Filers typed OAKLAND with state CA. Office addresses and mail that list Oakland can be part of $122,533,634 when that is the city string on the receipt. LobbyVault does not recode the field into a residential-only book. The 437,635-line count follows the same rule.

How current is the $122,533,634 total for Oakland?

The numbers come from FEC.gov itemized contribution aggregates indexed on LobbyVault: $122,533,634 and 437,635 lines for OAKLAND, 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 $280 is arithmetic from those two packet facts.