Pennsylvania candidate fundraising — 2010 cycle

Why Pennsylvania and 2010 share one LobbyVault page

$100,834,534.69 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: election cycle 2010, and candidate office state Pennsylvania (PA). 92 candidates survive both filters. The cycle side with the state filter removed is $1,854,998,616.07 from 2190 candidates nationwide. Pennsylvania therefore accounts for 5.4% of 2010 U.S. candidate receipts in these facts. The remaining $1,754,164,081.38 (94.6%) was reported by candidates whose office state is not PA.

This is not a restatement of Pennsylvania campaign finance. That hub mixes 2010 with every other even-year window filed under office state PA. It is also not a restatement of the 2010 election cycle hub, which mixes Pennsylvania with every other office state. 92 candidates and $100,834,534.69 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. Pennsylvania (PA) is the FEC office-state code. Ohio, New Jersey, Maryland, and New York office states are other keys. 2010 is a midterm FEC cycle: a two-year window that does not include a presidential general election. That calendar tag dates the receipts. It does not explain $100.8 million. The 2010 cycle is a closed even-year window in this extract; $100,834,534.69 is the stored Pennsylvania office-state total for that window. Source: FEC.gov candidate receipts grouped by election cycle and office state.

The Pennsylvania (PA) side of the join

On the state side, Pennsylvania indexes $100,834,534.69 of candidate receipts in cycle 2010 from 92 candidates. That figure is the office-state total for this cycle, not an all-years Pennsylvania census and not a count of residents. It is already inside the national 2010 total of $1,854,998,616.07; adding $100,834,534.69 to $1,854,998,616.07 would double-count the Pennsylvania slice. Pennsylvania campaign-finance pages still mix 2010 with every other cycle.

Pennsylvania (PA) is the FEC office-state code. Ohio, New Jersey, Maryland, and New York office states are other keys. Office state PA stays on the citation so Pennsylvania is not merged with another state's candidates. A large state-cycle total does not mean donors lived in Pennsylvania. Recipient committees of those campaigns file as candidate committees; this join does not publish a donor-city cut. Use the Pennsylvania hub to see the state without a year filter, and use this tie page when the question is specifically Pennsylvania in 2010.

The 2010 cycle side next to Pennsylvania

Federal election cycles are two-year windows on FEC.gov. The 2010 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 $1,854,998,616.07 across 2190 candidates. Pennsylvania's slice of that window is $100,834,534.69 from 92 candidates. Dividing national dollars by national candidates gives a mean of about $847,031 per U.S. candidate. That mean is an arithmetic average of candidates, not a typical campaign and not a median.

The national 2010 hub still includes every other office state. State pages for Pennsylvania still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates Pennsylvania × 2010. Independent expenditures are omitted from both $100,834,534.69 and $1,854,998,616.07 as they appear here. Adjacent pages for the 2010 election cycle, Pennsylvania campaign finance, all election cycles, and all FEC ties keep those broader cuts.

Pennsylvania's share of the 2010 national cycle

5.4% of $1,854,998,616.07 is a defined slice. Other office states hold $1,754,164,081.38. Put another way, about 5.4% of 2010 U.S. candidate receipts in this aggregate were tagged office state PA, and about 94.6% were not. Those percentages are $100,834,534.69 divided by $1,854,998,616.07 and $1,754,164,081.38 divided by $1,854,998,616.07. They are not shares of state population, eligible voters, or USAspending.

Dollar share (5.4%) and candidate volume (92 of 2190) are separate facts. This page does not publish a candidate-count percentage as a substitute for the dollar share. Do not treat 5.4% as Pennsylvania donors' share of national itemized giving. Donor tables are other joins.

Counts, dollars, and what they omit

92 candidates totaling $100,834,534.69 is the operational definition of the Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania versus other states: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean receipts of about $1.10 million use only $100,834,534.69 and 92. It is a trivial ratio, not a finding about wealth, turnout, or ideology. This cycle-state page does not break $100,834,534.69 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 Pennsylvania against other states, does not call 2010 a wave, and does not treat candidate receipts as a proxy for public opinion in Pennsylvania. Two columns matched. The office state of the candidate is not the state of the donor. An PA office-state code does not mean the money supported only Pennsylvania residents. Amended reports can move either number. If the live Pennsylvania hub or the live 2010 cycle hub disagrees with this prose, the newer FEC extract controls.

Independent expenditures and non-candidate tables are omitted. See the 2010 election cycle, Pennsylvania 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

What is the 2010 Pennsylvania candidate-receipt total?

$100.8 million ($100,834,534.69) from 92 candidates whose FEC office state is PA. Source: FEC.gov. That number is not the national 2010 total of $1.9 billion from 2190 candidates. Mixing the two columns is incorrect. Quote $100,834,534.69 only as Pennsylvania in 2010, and quote $1,854,998,616.07 only as the U.S. 2010 book.

What share of 2010 U.S. candidate receipts came from Pennsylvania office-state candidates?

5.4%. That is $100,834,534.69 divided by $1,854,998,616.07. The complement is 94.6%, or $1,754,164,081.38, from candidates whose office state is not PA. The share is not a share of donors, votes, or federal awards, and it is not a ranking of Pennsylvania against unnamed other states.

Are independent expenditures included in the Pennsylvania 2010 total?

No. The source note on this page is candidate receipts grouped by election cycle and office state, not independent expenditures. $100,834,534.69 should not be quoted as a complete picture of 2010 political spending in Pennsylvania. Super PAC and other independent-spend files are separate tables.

Do these FEC receipts fund federal spending in Pennsylvania?

No. FEC candidate receipts and USAspending obligations are different datasets. $100,834,534.69 is campaign money reported by Pennsylvania office-state candidates in 2010. It is not an award total and does not pay for federal contracts or grants. Do not add it to USAspending figures for Pennsylvania.