Hillsborough, CA political money — 2008 cycle

How Hillsborough, CA meets the 2008 election cycle

$313,685 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city HILLSBOROUGH with state CA, and election cycle 2008. The match is $313,685 across 286 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $38,546,671. 2008 therefore accounts for 0.81% of Hillsborough, CA itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $38,232,986 (99.2%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of Hillsborough, CA. That hub mixes 2008 with every other even-year window filed under HILLSBOROUGH. It is also not a restatement of the 2008 election cycle hub, which mixes Hillsborough, CA with every other donor city in the United States. The 286 rows and $313,685 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. Hillsborough, CA here is the string that survived aggregation as HILLSBOROUGH in CA. 2008 is a presidential FEC cycle: a two-year window that includes a presidential general election. That calendar fact does not explain why Hillsborough, CA donors itemized $313,685. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

The Hillsborough, CA side of the join

The city aggregate for Hillsborough, CA is $38,546,671 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 $313,685 from 2008 and the $38,232,986 from every other cycle in the same city file. California campaign-finance pages still mix Hillsborough with every other city in California.

The stored city sits in San Mateo County, California, on the Peninsula south of San Francisco. Burlingame, San Mateo, and San Francisco are not rolled into HILLSBOROUGH. State CA stays on the citation so Hillsborough, CA is not merged with Hillsborough in another state. $38,546,671 is the CA key only. A large city total does not mean 2008 was large, and a small city total does not mean 2008 was small. For Hillsborough, CA, the city stack is $38,546,671 while this cycle is $313,685 (0.81%). Use the city hub to see Hillsborough, CA without a year filter, and use this tie page when the question is specifically Hillsborough in 2008. Donor city is not the same as recipient city: committees that received these gifts can be anywhere in the FEC system.

The 2008 cycle side for California filers in Hillsborough

Federal election cycles are two-year windows on FEC.gov. The 2008 cycle is the Commission's cycle tag on itemized receipts, not a calendar year of January gifts only. Inside that window, Hillsborough, CA donors itemized $313,685 on 286 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $1,097 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 2008 hub still includes every other city. State pages for California still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates Hillsborough × 2008. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. Independent expenditures and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables. 286 itemized rows is a moderate file. Adjacent pages for Hillsborough, CA, 2008 election cycle, and California campaign finance keep those broader cuts; this URL is the intersection only.

2008 versus the rest of Hillsborough

0.81% of $38,546,671 is a small slice. The city hub is mostly other even-year windows, totaling $38,232,986. Put another way, about 0.81% of Hillsborough, CA's itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2008, and about 99.2% were not. Those percentages are $313,685 divided by $38,546,671 and $38,232,986 divided by $38,546,671. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (0.81%) and row volume (286 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 0.81% as Hillsborough's share of the 2008 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts.

Counts, dollars, and what they omit

286 itemized contributions totaling $313,685 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 HILLSBOROUGH. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of Hillsborough versus other California cities: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean gift size of about $1,097 uses only the two numbers in the join: $313,685 and 286 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 $313,685 out by occupation, industry, or recipient committee. City labels are filer-entered. A donor who typed HILLSBOROUGH is counted; a donor who typed a neighborhood, a firm city, or a nearby suburb is not recoded into Hillsborough.

Caveats on a geographic-cycle join

This page does not rank Hillsborough 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. 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 Hillsborough, CA hub or the live 2008 cycle hub disagrees with this prose, the newer FEC extract controls.

Unitemized gifts, independent expenditures, and non-individual sources are omitted. See Hillsborough, CA, the 2008 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 Hillsborough, CA donors give in the 2008 election cycle?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Hillsborough, CA total $313,685 in the 2008 cycle, across 286 contribution records. The same city label totals $38,546,671 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2008 is 0.81% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is the Hillsborough, CA city total only for 2008?

No. The city aggregate of $38,546,671 covers every cycle in the table for HILLSBOROUGH. The 2008 filter is $313,685 from 286 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $38,232,986. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2008 slice.

Did Hillsborough, CA 2008 donations stay in California?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Hillsborough, CA; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $313,685 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 Hillsborough, CA contributions were itemized in 2008?

286 itemized contribution records sum to $313,685. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $1,097 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.