Bakersfield, CA political money — 2008 cycle

Bakersfield, CA × 2008 isolates one presidential tag

$180,108 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city BAKERSFIELD with state CA, and election cycle 2008. The match is $180,108 across 243 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $37,074,806. 2008 therefore accounts for 0.49% of Bakersfield, CA itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $36,894,698 (99.5%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of Bakersfield, CA. That hub mixes 2008 with every other even-year window filed under BAKERSFIELD. It is also not a restatement of the 2008 election cycle hub, which mixes Bakersfield, CA with every other donor city in the United States. The 243 rows and $180,108 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.

The packet facts stop at city, state, city-wide total, cycle, cycle total, and contribution count. No donor names appear here because none appear in the packet. No committee list appears here because none appears in the packet. This page is not a California FPPC state-campaign total, a Kern County ranking, or an oil-patch census. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

BAKERSFIELD as a Kern County city key

Across cycles in this extract, contributor city BAKERSFIELD in California totals $37.1 million ($37,074,806). $180,108 is 0.49% of that city book. A small share does not mean 2008 was quiet in Bakersfield; it means later or earlier cycles in the same city string can dwarf a single window. Do not add $180,108 to $37,074,806; the city book already contains this slice. Subtracting is valid: $37,074,806 − $180,108 = $36,894,698 in other cycles.

The stored city sits in Kern County, California, in the southern San Joaquin Valley. Tehachapi, Delano, and Oildale are other FEC city strings, not rolled into BAKERSFIELD. State CA stays on the citation so Bakersfield is not merged with a same-named place in another state. $37.1 million is the CA key only. Donor city is not recipient city: committees that received these gifts can file from anywhere in the FEC system.

The 2008 two-year FEC window on Bakersfield lines

Federal election cycles are two-year windows on FEC.gov. 2008 is a presidential election cycle: a two-year FEC window that includes a presidential general election. Inside that window, Bakersfield, CA filers itemized $180,108 on 243 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $741 per itemized gift ($180,108 ÷ 243). That mean is an arithmetic average of rows, not a typical resident and not a median. This page does not publish a median or a unique-donor count.

a 243-row extract — a thicker receipt file for this city string, still Schedule A lines rather than unique residents. The national 2008 hub still includes every other city. State pages for California still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates Bakersfield × 2008. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. Independent expenditures and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables. California campaign-finance pages already contain this city when the same extract is used; do not add $180,108 into the state hub a second time.

2008 inside the Bakersfield all-cycle book

0.49% of $37,074,806 is the 2008 slice. Put another way, about 0.49% of Bakersfield, CA’s itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2008, and about 99.5% were not. Those percentages are $180,108 divided by $37,074,806 and $36,894,698 divided by $37,074,806. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (0.49%) and row volume (243 itemized gifts) are separate facts. Fresno and Los Angeles are other California city keys. This 2008 join does not treat BAKERSFIELD as a child of either. This packet does not include a citywide row count across all cycles, so a row-share percentage is not computed. Do not treat 0.49% as Bakersfield’s share of the 2008 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts.

243 rows omit independent-expenditure tables

243 itemized contributions totaling $180,108 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 BAKERSFIELD. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of Bakersfield versus other California cities: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean gift size of about $741 uses only the two numbers in the join: $180,108 and 243 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 $180,108 out by occupation, industry, or recipient committee. City labels are filer-entered. A donor who typed BAKERSFIELD is counted; a donor who typed a neighborhood, a firm city, or a nearby suburb is not recoded into Bakersfield.

What Bakersfield–2008 does not measure

This page does not rank Bakersfield against other cities, does not call 2008 a wave, and does not treat itemized giving as a proxy for public opinion in California. Two columns matched. A CA address on an individual receipt does not mean the money supported a California candidate. Amended reports can move either number. If the live Bakersfield, CA hub or the live 2008 cycle hub disagrees with this prose, the newer FEC extract controls. A presidential 2008 label does not assign Bakersfield receipts to a presidential committee. Recipient committee is unpublished on this packet.

Unitemized gifts, independent expenditures, and non-individual sources are omitted. See Bakersfield, CA, the 2008 election cycle, California campaign finance, and All FEC ties for the adjacent tables. This 2008 slice is not the 2010 or 2012 Bakersfield joins. Each even-year tag is its own city-cycle URL. 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 Bakersfield, CA donors give in the 2008 election cycle?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Bakersfield, CA total $180,108 in the 2008 cycle, across 243 contribution records. The same city label totals $37,074,806 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2008 is 0.49% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is Bakersfield’s citywide FEC total only from 2008?

No. The city aggregate of $37,074,806 covers every cycle in the table for BAKERSFIELD. The 2008 filter is $180,108 from 243 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $36,894,698. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2008 slice.

Did 2008 Bakersfield gifts stay with California candidates?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Bakersfield, CA; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $180,108 by office, state of the committee, or party. A CA city code is an address field on the individual receipt, not a map of California races.

How many Bakersfield, CA contributions were itemized in 2008?

243 itemized contribution records sum to $180,108. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $741 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.