Los Angeles, CA political money — 2008 cycle

How Los Angeles, CA meets the 2008 election cycle

$2,881,239 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city LOS ANGELES with state CA, and election cycle 2008. The match is $2,881,239 across 2,291 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $1,057,916,195. 2008 therefore accounts for 0.27% of Los Angeles, CA itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $1,055,034,956 (99.73%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of Los Angeles, CA. That hub mixes 2008 with every other even-year window filed under LOS ANGELES. It is also not a restatement of the 2008 election cycle hub, which mixes Los Angeles, CA with every other donor city in the United States. The 2,291 rows and $2,881,239 exist only where both filters are true. Correlation is not causation: a city code plus a cycle year does not prove why someone gave.

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. Los Angeles, CA here is the string that survived aggregation as LOS ANGELES 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 Los Angeles, CA donors itemized $2,881,239. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

The Los Angeles, CA side of the join

The city aggregate for Los Angeles, CA is $1,057,916,195 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 $2,881,239 from 2008 and the $1,055,034,956 from every other cycle in the same city file. State-level CA campaign-finance pages still mix Los Angeles with every other city in CA.

The stored city is the City of Los Angeles in Los Angeles County, California. Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and Pasadena are not rolled into LOS ANGELES. State CA stays on the citation so Los Angeles, CA is not merged with a same-named place in another state. $1,057,916,195 is the CA key only. For Los Angeles, CA, the city stack is $1,057,916,195 while this cycle is $2,881,239 (0.27%). Use the city hub for Los Angeles, CA without a year filter; use this tie for Los Angeles in 2008. Donor city is not recipient city: committees that received these gifts can file anywhere in the FEC system. Hollywood as a neighborhood string is not recoded into LOS ANGELES unless the filer typed that city.

The 2008 cycle side for CA filers in Los Angeles

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, Los Angeles, CA donors itemized $2,881,239 on 2,291 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $1,258 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 CA still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates Los Angeles × 2008. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. Independent expenditures and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables. 2,291 itemized rows is a relatively large file for this city string. A large row count still is not a unique-donor census. Repeat gifts and spelling variants add lines. The mean near $1,258 is $2,881,239 divided by 2,291. This URL is the intersection only.

2008 versus the rest of Los Angeles

0.27% of $1,057,916,195 is a slice of the city book, not a ranking against other cities. Put another way, about 0.27% of Los Angeles, CA's itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2008, and about 99.73% were not. Those percentages are $2,881,239 divided by $1,057,916,195 and $1,055,034,956 divided by $1,057,916,195. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (0.27%) and row volume (2,291 itemized gifts) are separate facts. This packet does not include a citywide row count across all cycles, so a row-share percentage is not computed. Do not treat 0.27% as Los Angeles's share of the 2008 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts. Los Angeles County is a geography note for readers; it is not a Census population weight on $2,881,239.

Counts, dollars, and what they omit

2,291 itemized contributions totaling $2,881,239 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 LOS ANGELES. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of Los Angeles versus other CA cities: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean gift size of about $1,258 uses only the two numbers in the join: $2,881,239 and 2,291 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 page does not break $2,881,239 out by occupation, industry, or recipient committee. City labels are filer-entered. A donor who typed LOS ANGELES is counted; a nearby suburb they typed instead is not recoded into Los Angeles.

Caveats on a geographic-cycle join

This page does not rank Los Angeles against other cities and does not treat itemized giving as public opinion in CA. Two columns matched. Contributor city is not campaign city. A CA address does not mean the money supported a CA candidate. Amended reports can move either number. If the live Los Angeles, 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 Los Angeles, 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 Los Angeles, CA donors give in the 2008 election cycle?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Los Angeles, CA total $2,881,239 in the 2008 cycle, across 2,291 contribution records. The same city label totals $1,057,916,195 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2008 is 0.27% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is the Los Angeles, CA city total only for 2008?

No. The city aggregate of $1,057,916,195 covers every cycle in the table for LOS ANGELES. The 2008 filter is $2,881,239 from 2,291 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $1,055,034,956. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2008 slice.

Did Los Angeles, CA 2008 donations stay in CA?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Los Angeles, CA; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $2,881,239 by office, state of the committee, or party. A CA city code is an address field on the individual receipt, not a map of CA races.

How many Los Angeles, CA contributions were itemized in 2008?

2,291 itemized contribution records sum to $2,881,239. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $1,258 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.