Darien, CT political money in the 2012 election cycle

How Darien meets the 2012 election cycle

$260,371 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city DARIEN with state CT, and election cycle 2012. LobbyVault stores that join so a reader can open the Darien, CT 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: Darien, CT in 2012.

186 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 DARIEN is in the same city field as a household street. Arithmetic mean per line is about $1,400 ($260,371 ÷ 186). That mean is division, not a typical resident and not a median.

2012 is a presidential election cycle. That calendar label does not explain $260,371. This packet does not carry party splits, committee names, or occupation mix for the join. Cite the two packet dollars — $260,371 for the 2012 slice and $39.9 million for the Darien, CT book — and stop before assigning motive.

The Darien, CT side of the join

Across cycles in this extract, contributor city DARIEN in Connecticut totals $39.9 million ($39,856,288). $260,371 is 0.7% of that city book. A small share does not mean 2012 was quiet in Darien; it means later or earlier cycles in the same city string can dwarf a single window. The remaining $39,595,917 in the city book sits in other even-year tags. The live Darien, CT table is the place to compare other years. This snapshot lists one cycle.

The stored city sits in Fairfield County, Connecticut. Stamford and New Canaan are separate FEC city keys and are not rolled into DARIEN. State CT stays on the citation so Darien is not merged with a same-named place in another state. A repeated city name under another state code is a different FEC key. $39.9 million is the CT 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 Connecticut filers in Darien

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. 186 Darien, CT lines in that window produced $260,371. 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 Darien.

Connecticut campaign-finance pages roll up the state, including cities that are not Darien. Do not add $260,371 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 $260,371 into spending by Darien candidates. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted from both $260,371 and the $39.9 million city book.

What $260,371 does not measure

$260,371 is itemized federal individual contributions with contributor city DARIEN. Unitemized gifts below the itemization threshold sit outside it. State-office campaigns in Connecticut file under state law and sit outside it. Independent-expenditure totals are a different FEC table. A candidate who lives in Darien 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 DARIEN is counted; a donor who typed a neighborhood, a firm city, or a nearby suburb is not recoded into Darien. LobbyVault does not rewrite the city field into a Census place or a residency test. Treat 186 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 Darien and 2012 together without mixing tables

Correlation is not causation. $260,371 beside $39.9 million does not mean 2012 caused the city book or that Darien drove the 2012 cycle. The join is a filter: city string plus cycle tag. Amended reports can move either number. If the live Darien, CT 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 Darien, CT, the 2012 election cycle, Connecticut campaign finance, and All FEC ties. Use those four doors. Do not paste $260,371 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 Connecticut.

A 0.7% cut of the Darien stack

0.7% of $39.9 million is a slice, not a ranking. Put another way, $260,371 of the $39,856,288 city stack was tagged 2012, and $39,595,917 was tagged other cycles. Those percentages are $260,371 divided by $39,856,288 and $39,595,917 divided by $39,856,288. They are not shares of Connecticut totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters. Dollar share (0.7%) and row volume (186 itemized gifts) are separate facts.

Do not treat 0.7% as Darien'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 Darien × 2012 only: $260,371, 186 receipts, mean about $1,400. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

Questions

How much did Darien, CT donors give in 2012?

Itemized FEC individual contributions listing contributor city DARIEN and cycle 2012 total $260,371 across 186 receipts in this LobbyVault extract. That is the city-cycle join, not the all-cycle Darien, CT book of $39.9 million. Unitemized gifts and Connecticut state-office filings sit outside both figures.

Is $260,371 all of Darien's federal political money?

No. $39.9 million ($39,856,288) is the all-cycle itemized book for contributor city DARIEN in CT. The 2012 slice is $260,371, 0.7% of that book. Other cycles hold $39,595,917. 186 is a 2012 receipt count, not a unique-donor count.

Did Darien, CT 2012 donations stay in Connecticut?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Darien, CT; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $260,371 by office, state of the committee, or party. A CT city code is an address field on the individual receipt, not a map of Connecticut races.

How many Darien, CT contributions were itemized in 2012?

186 itemized contribution records sum to $260,371. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $1,400 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.