Birmingham, AL political money in the 2008 election cycle

How Birmingham meets the 2008 election cycle

$259,375 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city BIRMINGHAM with state AL, and election cycle 2008. LobbyVault stores that join so a reader can open the Birmingham, AL city hub and the 2008 election cycle hub without treating either page as a substitute for this one. The city hub answers how much itemized money this city string has produced across cycles. The cycle hub answers how much itemized money that two-year federal window produced nationally. This page answers only the intersection: Birmingham, AL in 2008.

238 is a receipt count for that intersection, not a unique-donor census. A person who gave twice is two lines. A PAC or joint-fundraising address that stored BIRMINGHAM is in the same city field as a household street. Arithmetic mean per line is about $1,090 ($259,375 ÷ 238). That mean is division, not a typical resident and not a median.

2008 is a presidential election cycle. That calendar label does not explain $259,375. This packet does not carry party splits, committee names, or occupation mix for the join. Cite the two packet dollars — $259,375 for the 2008 slice and $100.7 million for the Birmingham, AL book — and stop before assigning motive.

The Birmingham, AL side of the join

Across cycles in this extract, contributor city BIRMINGHAM in Alabama totals $100.7 million ($100,682,535). $259,375 is 0.3% of that city book. A small share does not mean 2008 was quiet in Birmingham; it means later or earlier cycles in the same city string can dwarf a single window. The remaining $100,423,160 in the city book sits in other even-year tags. The live Birmingham, AL table is the place to compare other years. This snapshot lists one cycle.

The stored city sits in Jefferson County, Alabama. Hoover and Mountain Brook are separate FEC city keys and are not rolled into BIRMINGHAM. State AL stays on the citation so Birmingham is not merged with a same-named place in another state. A repeated city name under another state code is a different FEC key. $100.7 million is the AL key only. Donor city is not recipient city: committees that received these gifts can file from anywhere in the FEC system.

The 2008 cycle side for Alabama filers in Birmingham

Federal election cycles are two-year windows on FEC.gov. The 2008 cycle is not a calendar year of January gifts only; it is the Commission's cycle tag on itemized receipts. 238 Birmingham, AL lines in that window produced $259,375. National 2008 activity — every city — lives on the 2008 election cycle hub, not here. A presidential label marks the even-year window that includes a presidential general election, not a finding about turnout in Birmingham.

Alabama campaign-finance pages roll up the state, including cities that are not Birmingham. Do not add $259,375 to a state total from that hub; the state page already contains this city when the same extract is used. All FEC ties is the directory of other city-cycle and city-industry joins. None of those pages converts $259,375 into spending by Birmingham candidates. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted from both $259,375 and the $100.7 million city book.

What $259,375 does not measure

$259,375 is itemized federal individual contributions with contributor city BIRMINGHAM. Unitemized gifts below the itemization threshold sit outside it. State-office campaigns in Alabama file under state law and sit outside it. Independent-expenditure totals are a different FEC table. A candidate who lives in Birmingham can raise money from other cities; those gifts are not this join. PAC transfers and committee-to-committee activity are other files.

City labels are filer-entered. A donor who typed BIRMINGHAM is counted; a donor who typed a neighborhood, a firm city, or a nearby suburb is not recoded into Birmingham. LobbyVault does not rewrite the city field into a Census place or a residency test. Treat 238 as lines that stored this string in 2008. This packet does not include a citywide row count across all cycles, so a row-share percentage is not computed.

Reading Birmingham and 2008 together without mixing tables

Correlation is not causation. $259,375 beside $100.7 million does not mean 2008 caused the city book or that Birmingham drove the 2008 cycle. The join is a filter: city string plus cycle tag. Amended reports can move either number. If the live Birmingham, AL hub or the live 2008 cycle hub disagrees with this prose, the newer FEC extract controls. This snapshot is not a third disclosure system.

Internal links on this page go to Birmingham, AL, the 2008 election cycle, Alabama campaign finance, and All FEC ties. Use those four doors. Do not paste $259,375 into a USAspending award story; FEC receipts and federal obligations are different statutes. This packet has no award dollars, and itemized giving is not a proxy for public opinion in Alabama.

A 0.3% cut of the Birmingham stack

0.3% of $100.7 million is a slice, not a ranking. Put another way, $259,375 of the $100,682,535 city stack was tagged 2008, and $100,423,160 was tagged other cycles. Those percentages are $259,375 divided by $100,682,535 and $100,423,160 divided by $100,682,535. They are not shares of Alabama totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters. Dollar share (0.3%) and row volume (238 itemized gifts) are separate facts.

Do not treat 0.3% as Birmingham's share of the 2008 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts. Adjacent midterm windows for the same city string are other joins. This URL isolates Birmingham × 2008 only: $259,375, 238 receipts, mean about $1,090. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

Questions

How much did Birmingham, AL donors give in 2008?

Itemized FEC individual contributions listing contributor city BIRMINGHAM and cycle 2008 total $259,375 across 238 receipts in this LobbyVault extract. That is the city-cycle join, not the all-cycle Birmingham, AL book of $100.7 million. Unitemized gifts and Alabama state-office filings sit outside both figures.

Is $259,375 all of Birmingham's federal political money?

No. $100.7 million ($100,682,535) is the all-cycle itemized book for contributor city BIRMINGHAM in AL. The 2008 slice is $259,375, 0.3% of that book. Other cycles hold $100,423,160. 238 is a 2008 receipt count, not a unique-donor count.

Did Birmingham, AL 2008 donations stay in Alabama?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Birmingham, AL; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $259,375 by office, state of the committee, or party. A AL city code is an address field on the individual receipt, not a map of Alabama races.

How many Birmingham, AL contributions were itemized in 2008?

238 itemized contribution records sum to $259,375. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $1,090 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.