Birmingham, AL political money — 2012 cycle

How Birmingham, AL meets the 2012 election cycle

$292,325 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city BIRMINGHAM with state AL, and election cycle 2012. The match is $292,325 across 234 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $100,682,535. 2012 therefore accounts for 0.29% of Birmingham, AL itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $100,390,210 (99.7%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of Birmingham, AL. That hub mixes 2012 with every other even-year window filed under BIRMINGHAM. It is also not a restatement of the 2012 election cycle hub, which mixes Birmingham, AL with every other donor city in the United States. The 234 rows and $292,325 exist only where both filters are true. Correlation is not causation: a city code plus a cycle year does not prove why someone gave, whom they supported, or whether the recipient was local.

FEC individual contribution files record the contributor's city as entered on the itemized receipt. Spellings and suburb-versus-city choices can split a metro across multiple city pages. Birmingham, AL here is the string that survived aggregation as BIRMINGHAM in AL. 2012 is a presidential FEC cycle: a two-year window that includes a presidential general election. That calendar fact does not explain why Birmingham, AL donors itemized $292,325. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

The Birmingham, AL side of the join

The city aggregate for Birmingham, AL is $100,682,535 in itemized individual contributions. That figure is the running total for this city label across cycles, not a single-year census and not a count of unique residents. It includes the $292,325 from 2012 and the $100,390,210 from every other cycle in the same city file. Alabama campaign-finance pages still mix Birmingham with every other city in Alabama.

The stored city sits in Jefferson County, Alabama. Montgomery, Hoover, and Bessemer are not rolled into BIRMINGHAM. State AL stays on the citation so Birmingham, AL is not merged with Birmingham in another state. $100,682,535 is the AL key only. A large city total does not mean 2012 was large, and a small city total does not mean 2012 was small. For Birmingham, AL, the city stack is $100,682,535 while this cycle is $292,325 (0.29%). Use the city hub to see Birmingham, AL without a year filter, and use this tie page when the question is specifically Birmingham in 2012. Donor city is not the same as recipient city: committees that received these gifts can be anywhere in the FEC system.

The 2012 cycle side for Alabama filers in Birmingham

Federal election cycles are two-year windows on FEC.gov. The 2012 cycle is the Commission's cycle tag on itemized receipts, not a calendar year of January gifts only. Inside that window, Birmingham, AL donors itemized $292,325 on 234 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $1,249 per itemized gift. That mean is an arithmetic average of rows, not a typical donor and not a median. This page does not publish a median or a unique-donor count.

The national 2012 hub still includes every other city. State pages for Alabama still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates Birmingham × 2012. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. Independent expenditures and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables. 234 itemized rows is a moderate file. Adjacent pages for Birmingham, AL, 2012 election cycle, and Alabama campaign finance keep those broader cuts; this URL is the intersection only.

2012 versus the rest of Birmingham

0.29% of $100,682,535 is a small slice. The city hub is mostly other even-year windows, totaling $100,390,210. Put another way, about 0.29% of Birmingham, AL's itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2012, and about 99.7% were not. Those percentages are $292,325 divided by $100,682,535 and $100,390,210 divided by $100,682,535. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (0.29%) and row volume (234 itemized gifts) are separate facts. A small slice of citywide dollars can sit next to a moderate file; those labels describe this pair, not other cities. This packet does not include a citywide row count across all cycles, so a row-share percentage is not computed. Do not treat 0.29% as Birmingham's share of the 2012 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts.

Counts, dollars, and what they omit

234 itemized contributions totaling $292,325 is the operational definition of this page. The FEC file can list the same household on multiple dates, to multiple committees, and under spelling variants of BIRMINGHAM. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of Birmingham versus other Alabama cities: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean gift size of about $1,249 uses only the two numbers in the join: $292,325 and 234 rows. It is a trivial ratio, not a finding about wealth, turnout, or ideology. Employer and occupation strings on those receipts are other joins. This city-cycle page does not break the $292,325 out by occupation, industry, or recipient committee. 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.

Caveats on a geographic-cycle join

This page does not rank Birmingham against other cities, does not call 2012 a wave, and does not treat itemized giving as a proxy for public opinion in Alabama. Two columns matched. The city of the contributor is not the city of the campaign. A AL address on an individual receipt does not mean the money supported a Alabama candidate. Amended reports can move either number. If the live Birmingham, AL hub or the live 2012 cycle hub disagrees with this prose, the newer FEC extract controls.

Unitemized gifts, independent expenditures, and non-individual sources are omitted. See Birmingham, AL, the 2012 election cycle, Alabama campaign finance, and all FEC ties for the adjacent tables. Dollar figures are FEC itemized individual contribution aggregates. They are not federal spending awards and they do not fund USAspending totals. Source: FEC.gov.

Questions

How much did Birmingham, AL donors give in the 2012 election cycle?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Birmingham, AL total $292,325 in the 2012 cycle, across 234 contribution records. The same city label totals $100,682,535 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2012 is 0.29% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is the Birmingham, AL city total only for 2012?

No. The city aggregate of $100,682,535 covers every cycle in the table for BIRMINGHAM. The 2012 filter is $292,325 from 234 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $100,390,210. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2012 slice.

Did Birmingham, AL 2012 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 $292,325 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 2012?

234 itemized contribution records sum to $292,325. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $1,249 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.