Santa Monica, CA political money — 2008 cycle

How Santa Monica, CA meets the 2008 election cycle

$158,011 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city SANTA MONICA with state CA, and election cycle 2008. The match is $158,011 across 159 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $140,052,116. 2008 therefore accounts for 0.11% of Santa Monica, CA itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $139,894,105 (99.9%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of Santa Monica, CA. That hub mixes 2008 with every other even-year window filed under SANTA MONICA. It is also not a restatement of the 2008 election cycle hub, which mixes Santa Monica, CA with every other donor city in the United States. The 159 rows and $158,011 exist only where both filters are true. Correlation is not causation: a city code plus a cycle year does not prove why someone gave, whom they supported, or whether the recipient was local.

FEC individual contribution files record the contributor's city as entered on the itemized receipt. Santa Monica is its own incorporated city in Los Angeles County. Los Angeles, Pacific Palisades, and Venice are other contributor-city keys. 2008 is a presidential election cycle. That calendar fact does not explain why Santa Monica, CA donors itemized $158,011. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

The Santa Monica, CA side of the join

The city aggregate for Santa Monica, CA is $140,052,116 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 $158,011 from 2008 and the $139,894,105 from every other cycle in the same city file. California campaign-finance pages still mix Santa Monica with every other city in California.

State CA stays on the citation so Santa Monica, CA is not merged with a same-named place in another state. $140,052,116 is the CA key only. A large city total does not mean 2008 was large, and a small city total does not mean 2008 was small. For Santa Monica, CA, the city stack is $140,052,116 while this cycle is $158,011 (0.11%). Use the city hub to see Santa Monica, CA without a year filter.

The 2008 cycle side for California filers in Santa Monica

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, Santa Monica, CA donors itemized $158,011 on 159 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $994 per itemized gift. That mean is an arithmetic average of rows, not a typical donor and not a median.

The national 2008 hub still includes every other city. State pages for California still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates Santa Monica × 2008. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. 159 itemized rows is a mid-size itemized file. Adjacent pages for Santa Monica, CA, 2008 election cycle, and California campaign finance keep those broader cuts.

2008 versus the rest of Santa Monica

0.11% of $140,052,116 is a thin slice of the citywide book. The city hub is mostly other even-year windows, totaling $139,894,105. Put another way, about 0.11% of Santa Monica, CA's itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2008, and about 99.9% were not. Those percentages are $158,011 divided by $140,052,116 and $139,894,105 divided by $140,052,116.

Dollar share (0.11%) and row volume (159 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 0.11% as Santa Monica's share of the 2008 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts.

Caveats on a geographic-cycle join

This page does not rank Santa Monica against other cities, does not call 2008 a wave, and does not treat itemized giving as a proxy for public opinion in California. Two columns matched. The city of the contributor is not the city of the campaign. A CA address on an individual receipt does not mean the money supported a California candidate. See Santa Monica, CA, the 2008 election cycle, California campaign finance, and All FEC ties. Dollar figures are FEC itemized individual contribution aggregates. They are not federal spending awards.

Questions

How much did Santa Monica, CA donors give in the 2008 election cycle?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Santa Monica, CA total $158,011 in the 2008 cycle, across 159 contribution records. The same city label totals $140,052,116 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2008 is 0.11% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is the Santa Monica, CA city total only for 2008?

No. The city aggregate of $140,052,116 covers every cycle in the table for SANTA MONICA. The 2008 filter is $158,011 from 159 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $139,894,105. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2008 slice.

Did Santa Monica, CA 2008 donations stay in California?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Santa Monica, CA; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $158,011 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 Santa Monica, CA contributions were itemized in 2008?

159 itemized contribution records sum to $158,011. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $994 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.