Des Moines, IA political money — 2008 cycle

Des Moines, IA × 2008: the join

$402,609 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city DES MOINES with state IA, and election cycle 2008. The match is $402,609 across 316 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $56,663,095. 2008 therefore accounts for 0.71% of Des Moines, IA itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $56,260,486 (99.29%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of Des Moines, IA. That hub mixes 2008 with every other even-year window filed under DES MOINES. It is also not a restatement of the 2008 election cycle hub, which mixes Des Moines, IA with every other donor city in the United States. The 316 rows and $402,609 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. Des Moines, IA here is the string that survived aggregation as DES MOINES in IA. 2008 is a presidential FEC cycle: a two-year window that includes a presidential general election. That calendar fact does not explain why Des Moines, IA donors itemized $402,609. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

All-cycle Des Moines, IA versus this window

The city aggregate for Des Moines, IA is $56,663,095 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 $402,609 from 2008 and the $56,260,486 from every other cycle in the same city file. State-level IA campaign-finance pages still mix Des Moines with every other city in IA.

The stored city is the City of Des Moines in Polk County, Iowa. West Des Moines, Ames, and Cedar Rapids are not rolled into DES MOINES. State IA stays on the citation so Des Moines, IA is not merged with a same-named place in another state. $56,663,095 is the IA key only. For Des Moines, IA, the city stack is $56,663,095 while this cycle is $402,609 (0.71%). Use the city hub for Des Moines, IA without a year filter; use this tie for Des Moines in 2008. Donor city is not recipient city: committees that received these gifts can file anywhere in the FEC system. WEST DES MOINES is a separate city key from DES MOINES.

What the 2008 presidential window holds for Des Moines

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, Des Moines, IA donors itemized $402,609 on 316 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $1,274 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 IA still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates Des Moines × 2008. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. Independent expenditures and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables. 316 itemized contribution records produced $402,609. Mean about $1,274 per row is division, not a median and not a unique-donor average. This URL is the intersection only.

A 0.71% cut of the Des Moines stack

0.71% of $56,663,095 is a slice of the city book, not a ranking against other cities. Put another way, about 0.71% of Des Moines, IA's itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2008, and about 99.29% were not. Those percentages are $402,609 divided by $56,663,095 and $56,260,486 divided by $56,663,095. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (0.71%) and row volume (316 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 0.71% as Des Moines's share of the 2008 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts. Polk County is a geography note for readers; it is not a Census population weight on $402,609.

What $402,609 does not measure

316 itemized contributions totaling $402,609 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 DES MOINES. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of Des Moines versus other IA cities: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean gift size of about $1,274 uses only the two numbers in the join: $402,609 and 316 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 $402,609 out by occupation, industry, or recipient committee. City labels are filer-entered. A donor who typed DES MOINES is counted; a nearby suburb they typed instead is not recoded into Des Moines.

Reading Des Moines and 2008 together without mixing tables

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

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Des Moines, IA total $402,609 in the 2008 cycle, across 316 contribution records. The same city label totals $56,663,095 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2008 is 0.71% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is the Des Moines, IA city total only for 2008?

No. The city aggregate of $56,663,095 covers every cycle in the table for DES MOINES. The 2008 filter is $402,609 from 316 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $56,260,486. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2008 slice.

Did Des Moines, IA 2008 donations stay in IA?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Des Moines, IA; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $402,609 by office, state of the committee, or party. An IA city code is an address field on the individual receipt, not a map of IA races.

How many Des Moines, IA contributions were itemized in 2008?

316 itemized contribution records sum to $402,609. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $1,274 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.