Menlo Park, CA political money in the 2012 election cycle

How Menlo Park meets the 2012 election cycle

$271,684 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city MENLO PARK with state CA, and election cycle 2012. LobbyVault stores that join so a reader can open the Menlo Park, CA city hub and the 2012 election cycle hub without treating either page as a substitute for this one. The city hub answers how much itemized money this city string has produced across cycles. The cycle hub answers how much itemized money that two-year federal window produced nationally. This page answers only the intersection: Menlo Park, CA in 2012.

217 is a receipt count for that intersection, not a unique-donor census. A person who gave twice is two lines. A PAC or joint-fundraising address that stored MENLO PARK is in the same city field as a household street. Arithmetic mean per line is about $1,252 ($271,684 ÷ 217). That mean is division, not a typical resident and not a median.

2012 is a presidential election cycle. That calendar label does not explain $271,684. This packet does not carry party splits, committee names, or occupation mix for the join. Cite the two packet dollars — $271,684 for the 2012 slice and $85.3 million for the Menlo Park, CA book — and stop before assigning motive.

The Menlo Park, CA side of the join

Across cycles in this extract, contributor city MENLO PARK in California totals $85.3 million ($85,321,855). $271,684 is 0.3% of that city book. A small share does not mean 2012 was quiet in Menlo Park; it means later or earlier cycles in the same city string can dwarf a single window. The remaining $85,050,171 in the city book sits in other even-year tags. The live Menlo Park, CA table is the place to compare other years. This snapshot lists one cycle.

The stored city sits in San Mateo County, California. Palo Alto and Atherton are separate FEC city keys and are not rolled into MENLO PARK. State CA stays on the citation so Menlo Park is not merged with a same-named place in another state. A repeated city name under another state code is a different FEC key. $85.3 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 2012 cycle side for California filers in Menlo Park

Federal election cycles are two-year windows on FEC.gov. The 2012 cycle is not a calendar year of January gifts only; it is the Commission's cycle tag on itemized receipts. 217 Menlo Park, CA lines in that window produced $271,684. National 2012 activity — every city — lives on the 2012 election cycle hub, not here. A presidential label marks the even-year window that includes a presidential general election, not a finding about turnout in Menlo Park.

California campaign-finance pages roll up the state, including cities that are not Menlo Park. Do not add $271,684 to a state total from that hub; the state page already contains this city when the same extract is used. All FEC ties is the directory of other city-cycle and city-industry joins. None of those pages converts $271,684 into spending by Menlo Park candidates. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted from both $271,684 and the $85.3 million city book.

What $271,684 does not measure

$271,684 is itemized federal individual contributions with contributor city MENLO PARK. Unitemized gifts below the itemization threshold sit outside it. State-office campaigns in California file under state law and sit outside it. Independent-expenditure totals are a different FEC table. A candidate who lives in Menlo Park can raise money from other cities; those gifts are not this join. PAC transfers and committee-to-committee activity are other files.

City labels are filer-entered. A donor who typed MENLO PARK is counted; a donor who typed a neighborhood, a firm city, or a nearby suburb is not recoded into Menlo Park. LobbyVault does not rewrite the city field into a Census place or a residency test. Treat 217 as lines that stored this string in 2012. This packet does not include a citywide row count across all cycles, so a row-share percentage is not computed.

Reading Menlo Park and 2012 together without mixing tables

Correlation is not causation. $271,684 beside $85.3 million does not mean 2012 caused the city book or that Menlo Park drove the 2012 cycle. The join is a filter: city string plus cycle tag. Amended reports can move either number. If the live Menlo Park, CA hub or the live 2012 cycle hub disagrees with this prose, the newer FEC extract controls. This snapshot is not a third disclosure system.

Internal links on this page go to Menlo Park, CA, the 2012 election cycle, California campaign finance, and All FEC ties. Use those four doors. Do not paste $271,684 into a USAspending award story; FEC receipts and federal obligations are different statutes. This packet has no award dollars, and itemized giving is not a proxy for public opinion in California.

A 0.3% cut of the Menlo Park stack

0.3% of $85.3 million is a slice, not a ranking. Put another way, $271,684 of the $85,321,855 city stack was tagged 2012, and $85,050,171 was tagged other cycles. Those percentages are $271,684 divided by $85,321,855 and $85,050,171 divided by $85,321,855. They are not shares of California totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters. Dollar share (0.3%) and row volume (217 itemized gifts) are separate facts.

Do not treat 0.3% as Menlo Park's share of the 2012 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts. Adjacent midterm windows for the same city string are other joins. This URL isolates Menlo Park × 2012 only: $271,684, 217 receipts, mean about $1,252. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

Questions

How much did Menlo Park, CA donors give in 2012?

Itemized FEC individual contributions listing contributor city MENLO PARK and cycle 2012 total $271,684 across 217 receipts in this LobbyVault extract. That is the city-cycle join, not the all-cycle Menlo Park, CA book of $85.3 million. Unitemized gifts and California state-office filings sit outside both figures.

Is $271,684 all of Menlo Park's federal political money?

No. $85.3 million ($85,321,855) is the all-cycle itemized book for contributor city MENLO PARK in CA. The 2012 slice is $271,684, 0.3% of that book. Other cycles hold $85,050,171. 217 is a 2012 receipt count, not a unique-donor count.

Did Menlo Park, CA 2012 donations stay in California?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Menlo Park, CA; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $271,684 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 Menlo Park, CA contributions were itemized in 2012?

217 itemized contribution records sum to $271,684. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $1,252 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.