San Mateo, CA political money in the 2008 election cycle

How San Mateo meets the 2008 election cycle

$253,858 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city SAN MATEO with state CA, and election cycle 2008. LobbyVault stores that join so a reader can open the San Mateo, CA city hub and the 2008 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: San Mateo, CA in 2008.

135 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 SAN MATEO is in the same city field as a household street. Arithmetic mean per line is about $1,880 ($253,858 ÷ 135). That mean is division, not a typical resident and not a median.

2008 is a presidential election cycle. That calendar label does not explain $253,858. This packet does not carry party splits, committee names, or occupation mix for the join. Cite the two packet dollars — $253,858 for the 2008 slice and $52.5 million for the San Mateo, CA book — and stop before assigning motive.

The San Mateo, CA side of the join

Across cycles in this extract, contributor city SAN MATEO in California totals $52.5 million ($52,488,589). $253,858 is 0.5% of that city book. A small share does not mean 2008 was quiet in San Mateo; it means later or earlier cycles in the same city string can dwarf a single window. The remaining $52,234,731 in the city book sits in other even-year tags. The live San Mateo, CA table is the place to compare other years. This snapshot lists one cycle.

The stored city sits in San Mateo County, California. Redwood City and Burlingame are separate FEC city keys and are not rolled into SAN MATEO. State CA stays on the citation so San Mateo is not merged with a same-named place in another state. A repeated city name under another state code is a different FEC key. $52.5 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 2008 cycle side for California filers in San Mateo

Federal election cycles are two-year windows on FEC.gov. The 2008 cycle is not a calendar year of January gifts only; it is the Commission's cycle tag on itemized receipts. 135 San Mateo, CA lines in that window produced $253,858. National 2008 activity — every city — lives on the 2008 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 San Mateo.

California campaign-finance pages roll up the state, including cities that are not San Mateo. Do not add $253,858 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 $253,858 into spending by San Mateo candidates. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted from both $253,858 and the $52.5 million city book.

What $253,858 does not measure

$253,858 is itemized federal individual contributions with contributor city SAN MATEO. 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 San Mateo 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 SAN MATEO is counted; a donor who typed a neighborhood, a firm city, or a nearby suburb is not recoded into San Mateo. LobbyVault does not rewrite the city field into a Census place or a residency test. Treat 135 as lines that stored this string in 2008. This packet does not include a citywide row count across all cycles, so a row-share percentage is not computed.

Reading San Mateo and 2008 together without mixing tables

Correlation is not causation. $253,858 beside $52.5 million does not mean 2008 caused the city book or that San Mateo drove the 2008 cycle. The join is a filter: city string plus cycle tag. Amended reports can move either number. If the live San Mateo, CA hub or the live 2008 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 San Mateo, CA, the 2008 election cycle, California campaign finance, and All FEC ties. Use those four doors. Do not paste $253,858 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 0.5% cut of the San Mateo stack

0.5% of $52.5 million is a slice, not a ranking. Put another way, $253,858 of the $52,488,589 city stack was tagged 2008, and $52,234,731 was tagged other cycles. Those percentages are $253,858 divided by $52,488,589 and $52,234,731 divided by $52,488,589. They are not shares of California totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters. Dollar share (0.5%) and row volume (135 itemized gifts) are separate facts.

Do not treat 0.5% as San Mateo's share of the 2008 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 San Mateo × 2008 only: $253,858, 135 receipts, mean about $1,880. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

Questions

How much did San Mateo, CA donors give in 2008?

Itemized FEC individual contributions listing contributor city SAN MATEO and cycle 2008 total $253,858 across 135 receipts in this LobbyVault extract. That is the city-cycle join, not the all-cycle San Mateo, CA book of $52.5 million. Unitemized gifts and California state-office filings sit outside both figures.

Is $253,858 all of San Mateo's federal political money?

No. $52.5 million ($52,488,589) is the all-cycle itemized book for contributor city SAN MATEO in CA. The 2008 slice is $253,858, 0.5% of that book. Other cycles hold $52,234,731. 135 is a 2008 receipt count, not a unique-donor count.

Did San Mateo, CA 2008 donations stay in California?

Not necessarily. Donor city is San Mateo, CA; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $253,858 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 San Mateo, CA contributions were itemized in 2008?

135 itemized contribution records sum to $253,858. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $1,880 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.