Federal contributions from ZIP 53501

Nine figures on 125 lines

One hundred twenty-five itemized receipts add to $28,403,260. The mean is about $227,226 per line ($28,403,260 / 125). That is not a household ZIP mean. It is the arithmetic you get when large committee transfers share a small Wisconsin ZIP with almost no personal itemizations. Comparing 53501 with a high-volume residential code without noting the 125-line gap will mislead a reader.

ZIP 53501 is used on Afton-area mail, not on a dense urban grid. FEC filers can list a committee at an address in such a code. LobbyVault does not relabel those rows as non-residential; the ZIP field is whatever the committee reported. The $28,403,260 total therefore follows letterhead as readily as a farm road.

Sparse ZIPs are still public records. They are useful for seeing where committees file. They are a poor proxy for how a township votes or how many people live nearby. Keep those questions out of a ZIP rollup that only contains dollars and a receipt count.

Why a 125-line ZIP distorts town stories

If you treat $28,403,260 as what people in 53501 gave, you invent a neighborhood that the form field does not describe. One hundred twenty-five rows is few enough that the largest lines are easy to inspect. Sort the ZIP 53501 FEC page by amount. A short list of payers likely accounts for most of the total. That is a reading of the table, not a motive claim.

A thin line count is the reason this ZIP does not behave like Park Slope or the Mission. 125 receipts against $28,403,260 is a filing-address pattern until the named rows show otherwise. LobbyVault’s ZIP total follows the ZIP on each itemization it includes. It does not reconstruct the full path of every dollar.

What this packet will not tell you

There is no unique-donor count, no party split, and no industry rollup. One hundred twenty-five receipts are contribution lines, not people. Occupations on individual rows are outside these facts. Do not build an industry story from a ZIP total that does not include employer aggregates.

53501 is not a Wisconsin Ethics Commission figure and not a Rock County total. It is federal itemizations only, from FEC.gov. Local and state filings use other databases. Mixing them with $28,403,260 would invent a combined number this packet does not contain.

Treat 53501 as letterhead until the table says otherwise

A mean near $227,226 is not a household average. It is a prompt to read the payer column. If the top rows are committee names, describe 53501 as a filing address. If personal itemizations dominate after all, the table will show that; the ZIP sum will not.

Do not rank 53501 against a residential ZIP on dollars alone. Include the 125-receipt count in the comparison. The all-ZIP index shows both facts. The donor directory remains the name-level table. This packet still has no unique-donor count to convert 125 into people.

Where to continue from 53501

The ZIP 53501 FEC page holds the 125-row table behind $28,403,260. Rank other codes on the all-ZIP index, remembering that sparse ZIPs and residential ZIPs share a ranking but not a meaning. Use the donor directory for names. This guide cites only the packet’s two volume facts. If a later extract disagrees, FEC.gov controls. Cite $28,403,260 only as itemized federal receipts tagged 53501.

Unitemized federal gifts never enter $28,403,260. Independent expenditures paid from another ZIP never enter it. Recheck after a restatement. Quote $28,403,260 with 125 contributions. The mean of about $227,226 is $28,403,260 divided by 125.

Sparse Wisconsin mail still has a public table

One hundred twenty-five itemizations against $28,403,260 produce a mean of about $227,226. Rank 53501 against a residential ZIP on dollars alone and the comparison fails. Include the 125-receipt count. The all-ZIP directory shows both facts. Afton geography orients the map. It does not convert letterhead into a township census.

Sort the ZIP 53501 FEC page by amount. A short list of payers likely accounts for most of $28,403,260. That is a reading of the table, not a motive claim. Wisconsin Ethics Commission filings never enter this total. Unitemized federal gifts never enter it. Independent expenditures paid from another ZIP never enter it.

The packet has no unique-donor field, so 125 cannot be restated as people. Occupations on individual rows are outside these facts. Do not build an industry story from a ZIP total that does not include employer aggregates. The donor directory remains the name-level table.

If a later extract disagrees, FEC.gov controls. Recheck after a restatement. Cite $28,403,260 only as itemized federal receipts tagged 53501. Quote the pair with 125 contributions. A mean near $227,226 is a prompt to read the payer column.

Questions

What is the ZIP 53501 contribution total?

FEC.gov itemized receipts listing contributor ZIP 53501 total $28,403,260 across 125 contributions in the LobbyVault aggregate. That is a ZIP roll-up of federal Schedule A rows, not a unique-donor count and not a census of Afton residents. Unitemized gifts sit outside it. The mean of about $227,226 is arithmetic from those two packet facts.

How many FEC contributions are tagged to ZIP 53501?

LobbyVault counts 125 itemized contributions for ZIP 53501. Repeat gifts and memo entries can add rows without adding new donors. This packet does not publish a unique-donor figure. Those rows are itemized Schedule A lines, not people. The matching dollar total is $28,403,260.

Does ZIP 53501 include only Afton residents?

No. The ZIP is the five-digit contributor code on the FEC itemization. Committee addresses in the 53501 grid can be part of $28,403,260 when that is what was filed. LobbyVault does not recode the field into a residential-only book. The 125-line count follows the same rule.

Where does LobbyVault get ZIP 53501 totals?

The numbers come from FEC.gov itemized contribution aggregates indexed on LobbyVault: $28,403,260 and 125 lines for ZIP 53501. Original reports remain on FEC.gov. Wisconsin state filings are outside both figures. LobbyVault is the index, not the filing system. If a later extract disagrees, the Commission’s filing controls.