Atlanta, GA political money — 2008 cycle

Reading Atlanta against cycle 2008

$946,425 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city ATLANTA with state GA, and election cycle 2008. The match is $946,425 across 767 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $381,643,337. 2008 therefore accounts for 0.25% of Atlanta, GA itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $380,696,912 (99.75%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of Atlanta, GA. That hub mixes 2008 with every other even-year window filed under ATLANTA. It is also not a restatement of the 2008 election cycle hub, which mixes Atlanta, GA with every other donor city in the United States. The 767 rows and $946,425 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. Atlanta, GA here is the string that survived aggregation as ATLANTA in GA. 2008 is a presidential FEC cycle: a two-year window that includes a presidential general election. That calendar fact does not explain why Atlanta, GA donors itemized $946,425. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

Atlanta's city aggregate, without a year filter

The city aggregate for Atlanta, GA is $381,643,337 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 $946,425 from 2008 and the $380,696,912 from every other cycle in the same city file. State-level GA campaign-finance pages still mix Atlanta with every other city in GA.

The stored city is the City of Atlanta spanning Fulton and DeKalb counties, Georgia. Decatur, Marietta, and Sandy Springs are not rolled into ATLANTA. State GA stays on the citation so Atlanta, GA is not merged with a same-named place in another state. $381,643,337 is the GA key only. For Atlanta, GA, the city stack is $381,643,337 while this cycle is $946,425 (0.25%). Use the city hub for Atlanta, GA without a year filter; use this tie for Atlanta in 2008. Donor city is not recipient city: committees that received these gifts can file anywhere in the FEC system. Atlanta is not merged with unincorporated Fulton strings the filer typed instead.

Isolating Atlanta 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, Atlanta, GA donors itemized $946,425 on 767 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $1,234 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 GA still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates Atlanta × 2008. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. Independent expenditures and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables. 767 itemized contribution records produced $946,425. Mean about $1,234 per row is division, not a median and not a unique-donor average. This URL is the intersection only.

Where $946,425 sits inside $381.6 million

0.25% of $381,643,337 is a slice of the city book, not a ranking against other cities. Put another way, about 0.25% of Atlanta, GA's itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2008, and about 99.75% were not. Those percentages are $946,425 divided by $381,643,337 and $380,696,912 divided by $381,643,337. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (0.25%) and row volume (767 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 0.25% as Atlanta's share of the 2008 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts. Fulton County is a geography note for readers; it is not a Census population weight on $946,425.

Schedule A city strings and missing tables

767 itemized contributions totaling $946,425 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 ATLANTA. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of Atlanta versus other GA cities: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean gift size of about $1,234 uses only the two numbers in the join: $946,425 and 767 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 $946,425 out by occupation, industry, or recipient committee. City labels are filer-entered. A donor who typed ATLANTA is counted; a nearby suburb they typed instead is not recoded into Atlanta.

Citing this pair on FEC.gov terms

This page does not rank Atlanta against other cities and does not treat itemized giving as public opinion in GA. Two columns matched. Contributor city is not campaign city. A GA address does not mean the money supported a GA candidate. Amended reports can move either number. If the live Atlanta, GA 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 Atlanta, GA, the 2008 election cycle, Georgia 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 Atlanta, GA donors give in the 2008 election cycle?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Atlanta, GA total $946,425 in the 2008 cycle, across 767 contribution records. The same city label totals $381,643,337 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2008 is 0.25% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is the Atlanta, GA city total only for 2008?

No. The city aggregate of $381,643,337 covers every cycle in the table for ATLANTA. The 2008 filter is $946,425 from 767 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $380,696,912. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2008 slice.

Did Atlanta, GA 2008 donations stay in GA?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Atlanta, GA; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $946,425 by office, state of the committee, or party. A GA city code is an address field on the individual receipt, not a map of GA races.

How many Atlanta, GA contributions were itemized in 2008?

767 itemized contribution records sum to $946,425. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $1,234 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.