San Mateo, CA political money — 2012 cycle

The 2012 overlap for San Mateo, CA

$248,570 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city SAN MATEO with state CA, and election cycle 2012. The match is $248,570 across 90 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $52,488,589. 2012 therefore accounts for 0.47% of San Mateo, CA itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $52,240,019 (99.53%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of San Mateo, CA. That hub mixes 2012 with every other even-year window filed under SAN MATEO. It is also not a restatement of the 2012 election cycle hub, which mixes San Mateo, CA with every other donor city in the United States. The 90 rows and $248,570 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 Mateo, CA here is the string that survived aggregation as SAN MATEO in CA. 2012 is a presidential FEC cycle: a two-year window that includes a presidential general election. That calendar fact does not explain why San Mateo, CA donors itemized $248,570. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

What the San Mateo, CA city book includes

The city aggregate for San Mateo, CA is $52,488,589 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 $248,570 from 2012 and the $52,240,019 from every other cycle in the same city file. State-level CA campaign-finance pages still mix San Mateo with every other city in CA.

The stored city is the City of San Mateo in San Mateo County, California. Redwood City, Burlingame, and San Francisco are not rolled into SAN MATEO. State CA stays on the citation so San Mateo, CA is not merged with a same-named place in another state. $52,488,589 is the CA key only. For San Mateo, CA, the city stack is $52,488,589 while this cycle is $248,570 (0.47%). Use the city hub for San Mateo, CA without a year filter; use this tie for San Mateo in 2012. Donor city is not recipient city: committees that received these gifts can file anywhere in the FEC system. 2012 is a presidential FEC cycle. That label does not explain ninety itemized rows.

2012 as an FEC cycle tag, not a local election

Federal election cycles are two-year windows on FEC.gov. The 2012 cycle is the Commission's cycle tag on itemized receipts, not a calendar year of January gifts only. Inside that window, San Mateo, CA donors itemized $248,570 on 90 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $2,762 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 2012 hub still includes every other city. State pages for CA still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates San Mateo × 2012. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. Independent expenditures and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables. 90 itemized rows with a mean near $2,762 is a thin file with large average lines, not a census of households. Treat 90 as receipts, not unique people. A high mean is $248,570 divided by 90 — arithmetic, not a wealth ranking. This URL is the intersection only.

Dollar share is not row share

0.47% of $52,488,589 is a slice of the city book, not a ranking against other cities. Put another way, about 0.47% of San Mateo, CA's itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2012, and about 99.53% were not. Those percentages are $248,570 divided by $52,488,589 and $52,240,019 divided by $52,488,589. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (0.47%) and row volume (90 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 0.47% as San Mateo's share of the 2012 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts. San Mateo County is a geography note for readers; it is not a Census population weight on $248,570.

Itemized rows are not unique donors

90 itemized contributions totaling $248,570 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 MATEO. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of San Mateo versus other CA cities: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean gift size of about $2,762 uses only the two numbers in the join: $248,570 and 90 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 $248,570 out by occupation, industry, or recipient committee. City labels are filer-entered. A donor who typed SAN MATEO is counted; a nearby suburb they typed instead is not recoded into San Mateo.

Correlation is not causation on this tie

This page does not rank San Mateo 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 Mateo, CA hub or the live 2012 cycle hub disagrees with this prose, the newer FEC extract controls.

Unitemized gifts, independent expenditures, and non-individual sources are omitted. See San Mateo, CA, the 2012 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 Mateo, CA donors give in the 2012 election cycle?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing San Mateo, CA total $248,570 in the 2012 cycle, across 90 contribution records. The same city label totals $52,488,589 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2012 is 0.47% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is the San Mateo, CA city total only for 2012?

No. The city aggregate of $52,488,589 covers every cycle in the table for SAN MATEO. The 2012 filter is $248,570 from 90 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $52,240,019. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2012 slice.

Did San Mateo, CA 2012 donations stay in CA?

Not necessarily. Donor city is San Mateo, CA; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $248,570 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 Mateo, CA contributions were itemized in 2012?

90 itemized contribution records sum to $248,570. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $2,762 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.