Georgia candidate fundraising — 2008 cycle

How the 2008 cycle meets Georgia office-state receipts

$50,286,908.49 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: election cycle 2008, and candidate office state Georgia (GA). 50 candidates survive both filters. The cycle side with the state filter removed is $3,257,217,142.47 from 1638 candidates nationwide. Georgia therefore accounts for 1.5% of 2008 U.S. candidate receipts in these facts. The remaining $3,206,930,233.98 (98.5%) was reported by candidates whose office state is not GA.

This is not a restatement of Georgia campaign finance. That hub mixes 2008 with every other even-year window filed under office state GA. It is also not a restatement of the 2008 election cycle hub, which mixes Georgia with every other office state. 50 candidates and $50,286,908.49 exist only where both filters are true. Correlation is not causation: an office-state code plus a cycle year does not prove why money was raised, which office drove the total, or who the donors were.

FEC candidate files store office state as the state of the seat sought, not the donor's home address. Georgia (GA) is the FEC office-state code. Florida, Alabama, and South Carolina office states are not folded into GA. 2008 is a presidential FEC cycle: a two-year window that includes a presidential general election. That calendar tag dates the receipts. It does not explain $50.3 million. The 2008 cycle is a closed even-year window in this extract; $50,286,908.49 is the stored Georgia office-state total for that window. Source: FEC.gov candidate receipts grouped by election cycle and office state.

The Georgia (GA) side of the join

On the state side, Georgia indexes $50,286,908.49 of candidate receipts in cycle 2008 from 50 candidates. That figure is the office-state total for this cycle, not an all-years Georgia census and not a count of residents. It is already inside the national 2008 total of $3,257,217,142.47; adding $50,286,908.49 to $3,257,217,142.47 would double-count the Georgia slice. Georgia campaign-finance pages still mix 2008 with every other cycle.

Georgia (GA) is the FEC office-state code. Florida, Alabama, and South Carolina office states are not folded into GA. Office state GA stays on the citation so Georgia is not merged with another state's candidates. A large state-cycle total does not mean donors lived in Georgia. Recipient committees of those campaigns file as candidate committees; this join does not publish a donor-city cut. Use the Georgia hub to see the state without a year filter, and use this tie page when the question is specifically Georgia in 2008.

The 2008 cycle side next to Georgia

Federal election cycles are two-year windows on FEC.gov. The 2008 cycle is the Commission's cycle tag on candidate receipts, not a single calendar year of January filings only. Inside that window, U.S. candidates reported $3,257,217,142.47 across 1638 candidates. Georgia's slice of that window is $50,286,908.49 from 50 candidates. Dividing national dollars by national candidates gives a mean of about $1.99 million per U.S. candidate. That mean is an arithmetic average of candidates, not a typical campaign and not a median.

The national 2008 hub still includes every other office state. State pages for Georgia still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates Georgia × 2008. Independent expenditures are omitted from both $50,286,908.49 and $3,257,217,142.47 as they appear here. Adjacent pages for the 2008 election cycle, Georgia campaign finance, all election cycles, and all FEC ties keep those broader cuts.

Georgia's share of the 2008 national cycle

1.5% of $3,257,217,142.47 is a defined slice. Other office states hold $3,206,930,233.98. Put another way, about 1.5% of 2008 U.S. candidate receipts in this aggregate were tagged office state GA, and about 98.5% were not. Those percentages are $50,286,908.49 divided by $3,257,217,142.47 and $3,206,930,233.98 divided by $3,257,217,142.47. They are not shares of state population, eligible voters, or USAspending.

Dollar share (1.5%) and candidate volume (50 of 1638) are separate facts. This page does not publish a candidate-count percentage as a substitute for the dollar share. Do not treat 1.5% as Georgia donors' share of national itemized giving. Donor tables are other joins.

Counts, dollars, and what they omit

50 candidates totaling $50,286,908.49 is the operational definition of the Georgia side. The FEC file can list primary losers, general-election nominees, and other federal candidates under the same office-state code. Unique-person counts beyond that candidate total are not in the packet. Neither is a ranking of Georgia versus other states: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean receipts of about $1.01 million use only $50,286,908.49 and 50. It is a trivial ratio, not a finding about wealth, turnout, or ideology. This cycle-state page does not break $50,286,908.49 out by occupation of donors, industry, or named committee. No donor names are supplied, and none are added.

Caveats on a cycle-state join

This page does not rank Georgia against other states, does not call 2008 a wave, and does not treat candidate receipts as a proxy for public opinion in Georgia. Two columns matched. The office state of the candidate is not the state of the donor. An GA office-state code does not mean the money supported only Georgia residents. Amended reports can move either number. If the live Georgia hub or the live 2008 cycle hub disagrees with this prose, the newer FEC extract controls.

Independent expenditures and non-candidate tables are omitted. See the 2008 election cycle, Georgia campaign finance, all election cycles, and all FEC ties for the adjacent tables. Dollar figures are FEC candidate receipt aggregates. They are not federal spending awards and they do not fund USAspending totals. Source: FEC.gov.

Questions

How much did Georgia candidates raise in the 2008 election cycle?

FEC candidate receipts for office state Georgia (GA) total $50,286,908.49 in the 2008 cycle, across 50 candidates. The national 2008 cycle totals $3,257,217,142.47 from 1638 candidates, so Georgia is 1.5% of that U.S. candidate-receipt stack. Figures are from FEC.gov cycle-by-office-state aggregates of candidate receipts only.

Is $3.3 billion the amount Georgia candidates raised in 2008?

No. $3,257,217,142.47 is the national 2008 candidate-receipt total. Georgia's office-state total in that cycle is $50,286,908.49. Other office states hold $3,206,930,233.98. Use the 2008 cycle hub for the U.S. figure and this tie page for the Georgia slice only. Independent expenditures are omitted from both totals as shown here.

Does office state GA mean the donors lived in Georgia?

No. Office state is the state of the federal seat on the candidate record. Donors can live anywhere. This join does not allocate the $50,286,908.49 by donor state, employer, or party. An GA office-state code is not a map of Georgia residents and is not a map of where the money was spent.

How many Georgia candidates are in the 2008 file?

50 candidate records sum to $50,286,908.49. That count is candidates, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $1.01 million per candidate. Independent expenditures are not included. Unique-donor counts are not in these facts and are not invented here.