CONSULTANT

Joining a vague label to a specific cycle

Few FEC strings are broader than Consultant. Management consultants, political consultants, IT contractors, and people who left the field blank-adjacent all land here after grouping. The 2014 cut still has a precise dollar cell: $3,982,817. Precision on the year does not create precision on the job. The join’s job is to keep those two facts honest at the same time.

One thousand fifty-five donors is a wide base. 3,499 lines imply about 3.3 contributions per donor. Average receipt size is about $1,138 ($3,982,817 ÷ 3,499). Average per donor is about $3,775. Those figures describe itemized federal activity among people who typed a consulting-related employer, not the consulting industry’s revenue or its lobbying payroll.

Consulting is a word that covers strategy shops, campaign vendors, freelance IT, and people who left a company name off the form. The FEC field does not encode which of those the 1,055 donors meant. The join still has a hard dollar cell: $3,982,817 in 2014, on 3,499 lines. That hardness is why a year cut is useful. Soft labels still produce countable receipts. The 4.3% share of $91,820,178 locates the midterm inside a very large occupation roll without pretending the label is a license.

Why 2014 is a thin slice of $91.8 million

Ninety-one million eight hundred twenty thousand one hundred seventy-eight dollars is the Consultant grouping across every cycle in the table. $3,982,817 is 4.3% of that. Midterms often show fewer itemized lines than presidential years for occupation-style keys, but this page does not contain other years’ dollars, so it cannot prove that pattern here. It can only locate 2014 inside the all-cycle stack.

Because the label is broad, year-over-year swings can reflect filing fashions—more people writing “consultant” instead of a company name—as much as they reflect real giving. That is a caveat on the industry hub as well. The tie page’s contribution is narrower: here is the 2014 cell, here is the donor count, here is the share.

Questions

How much FEC money is tagged Consultant in 2014?

The industry–cycle join shows $3,982,817 in itemized individual contributions for Consultant in 2014, from 3,499 contributions and 1,055 donors. The grouping’s all-cycle total is $91,820,178.

Are these political consultants?

Unknown. The FEC employer/occupation field is a self-report. Management, IT, campaign, and other consultants can share the same grouped string. The facts give dollars, lines, and donor keys—not a job census.

Why is 2014 only 4.3% of the Consultant total?

Because $3,982,817 divided by $91,820,178 is 4.3%. Other cycles hold the rest of the occupation string’s itemized individual money. This page does not list those other years’ amounts.

Does this include consulting-firm PAC spending?

No. The $3,982,817 cell is individual receipts with a Consultant grouping. Committee disbursements and independent expenditures are separate FEC files and are not in these facts.