Bakersfield, CA political money — 2012 cycle

How Bakersfield, CA meets the 2012 election cycle

$297,452 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city BAKERSFIELD with state CA, and election cycle 2012. The match is $297,452 across 264 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $37,074,806. 2012 therefore accounts for 0.80% of Bakersfield, CA itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $36,777,354 (99.2%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of Bakersfield, CA. That hub mixes 2012 with every other even-year window filed under BAKERSFIELD. It is also not a restatement of the 2012 election cycle hub, which mixes Bakersfield, CA with every other donor city in the United States. The 264 rows and $297,452 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. Bakersfield, CA here is the string that survived aggregation as BAKERSFIELD in CA. 2012 is a presidential FEC cycle: a two-year window that includes a presidential general election. That calendar fact does not explain why Bakersfield, CA donors itemized $297,452. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

The Bakersfield, CA side of the join

The city aggregate for Bakersfield, CA is $37,074,806 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 $297,452 from 2012 and the $36,777,354 from every other cycle in the same city file. California campaign-finance pages still mix Bakersfield with every other city in California.

The stored city sits in Kern County, California, in the southern San Joaquin Valley. Los Angeles and Fresno are not rolled into BAKERSFIELD. State CA stays on the citation so Bakersfield is not merged into a county-wide Kern County key. $37,074,806 is the CA key only. A large city total does not mean 2012 was large, and a small city total does not mean 2012 was small. For Bakersfield, CA, the city stack is $37,074,806 while this cycle is $297,452 (0.80%). Use the city hub to see Bakersfield, CA without a year filter, and use this tie page when the question is specifically Bakersfield 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 California filers in Bakersfield

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, Bakersfield, CA donors itemized $297,452 on 264 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $1,127 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 California still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates Bakersfield × 2012. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. Independent expenditures and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables. 264 itemized rows is a moderate file. Adjacent pages for Bakersfield, CA, 2012 election cycle, and California campaign finance keep those broader cuts; this URL is the intersection only.

2012 versus the rest of Bakersfield

0.80% of $37,074,806 is a small slice. The city hub is mostly other even-year windows, totaling $36,777,354. Put another way, about 0.80% of Bakersfield, CA's itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2012, and about 99.2% were not. Those percentages are $297,452 divided by $37,074,806 and $36,777,354 divided by $37,074,806. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (0.80%) and row volume (264 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 0.80% as Bakersfield's share of the 2012 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts.

Counts, dollars, and what they omit

264 itemized contributions totaling $297,452 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 $1,127 uses only the two numbers in the join: $297,452 and 264 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 $297,452 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.

Caveats on a geographic-cycle join

This page does not rank Bakersfield against other cities, does not call 2012 a wave, and does not treat itemized giving as a proxy for public opinion in California. Two columns matched. The city of the contributor is not the city of the campaign. 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 2012 cycle hub disagrees with this prose, the newer FEC extract controls.

Unitemized gifts, independent expenditures, and non-individual sources are omitted. See Bakersfield, CA, the 2012 election cycle, California 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 Bakersfield, CA donors give in the 2012 election cycle?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Bakersfield, CA total $297,452 in the 2012 cycle, across 264 contribution records. The same city label totals $37,074,806 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2012 is 0.80% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is the Bakersfield, CA city total only for 2012?

No. The city aggregate of $37,074,806 covers every cycle in the table for BAKERSFIELD. The 2012 filter is $297,452 from 264 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $36,777,354. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2012 slice.

Did Bakersfield, CA 2012 donations stay in California?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Bakersfield, CA; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $297,452 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 2012?

264 itemized contribution records sum to $297,452. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $1,127 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.