San Francisco, CA political money — 2008 cycle

Reading San Francisco against cycle 2008

$1,659,401 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city SAN FRANCISCO with state CA, and election cycle 2008. The match is $1,659,401 across 1,145 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $1,418,166,223. 2008 therefore accounts for 0.12% of San Francisco, CA itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $1,416,506,822 (99.88%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of San Francisco, CA. That hub mixes 2008 with every other even-year window filed under SAN FRANCISCO. It is also not a restatement of the 2008 election cycle hub, which mixes San Francisco, CA with every other donor city in the United States. The 1,145 rows and $1,659,401 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. San Francisco, CA here is the string that survived aggregation as SAN FRANCISCO 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 San Francisco, CA donors itemized $1,659,401. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

San Francisco's city aggregate, without a year filter

The city aggregate for San Francisco, CA is $1,418,166,223 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 $1,659,401 from 2008 and the $1,416,506,822 from every other cycle in the same city file. State-level CA campaign-finance pages still mix San Francisco with every other city in CA.

The stored city is the City and County of San Francisco, California. Oakland, Berkeley, and Daly City are not rolled into SAN FRANCISCO. State CA stays on the citation so San Francisco, CA is not merged with a same-named place in another state. $1,418,166,223 is the CA key only. For San Francisco, CA, the city stack is $1,418,166,223 while this cycle is $1,659,401 (0.12%). Use the city hub for San Francisco, CA without a year filter; use this tie for San Francisco in 2008. Donor city is not recipient city: committees that received these gifts can file anywhere in the FEC system. Peninsula and East Bay strings are other city keys.

Isolating San Francisco inside the 2008 cycle hub

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, San Francisco, CA donors itemized $1,659,401 on 1,145 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $1,449 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 San Francisco × 2008. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. Independent expenditures and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables. 1,145 itemized contribution records produced $1,659,401. Mean about $1,449 per row is division, not a median and not a unique-donor average. This URL is the intersection only.

Where $1,659,401 sits inside $1.42 billion

0.12% of $1,418,166,223 is a slice of the city book, not a ranking against other cities. Put another way, about 0.12% of San Francisco, CA's itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2008, and about 99.88% were not. Those percentages are $1,659,401 divided by $1,418,166,223 and $1,416,506,822 divided by $1,418,166,223. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (0.12%) and row volume (1,145 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 0.12% as San Francisco's share of the 2008 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts. San Francisco County is a geography note for readers; it is not a Census population weight on $1,659,401.

Schedule A city strings and missing tables

1,145 itemized contributions totaling $1,659,401 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 SAN FRANCISCO. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of San Francisco versus other CA cities: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean gift size of about $1,449 uses only the two numbers in the join: $1,659,401 and 1,145 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 $1,659,401 out by occupation, industry, or recipient committee. City labels are filer-entered. A donor who typed SAN FRANCISCO is counted; a nearby suburb they typed instead is not recoded into San Francisco.

Citing this pair on FEC.gov terms

This page does not rank San Francisco 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 San Francisco, 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 San Francisco, 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 San Francisco, CA donors give in the 2008 election cycle?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing San Francisco, CA total $1,659,401 in the 2008 cycle, across 1,145 contribution records. The same city label totals $1,418,166,223 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2008 is 0.12% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is the San Francisco, CA city total only for 2008?

No. The city aggregate of $1,418,166,223 covers every cycle in the table for SAN FRANCISCO. The 2008 filter is $1,659,401 from 1,145 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $1,416,506,822. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2008 slice.

Did San Francisco, CA 2008 donations stay in CA?

Not necessarily. Donor city is San Francisco, CA; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $1,659,401 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 San Francisco, CA contributions were itemized in 2008?

1,145 itemized contribution records sum to $1,659,401. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $1,449 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.