IBM political money — 2008 cycle

IBM as stored employer text, 2008 as cycle

Employer and occupation groupings sit on one axis; election cycles sit on the other. Rows that match both — IBM and 2008 — sum to $717,228. 1,371 itemized contributions and 539 unique donors produced it. The total is not an official organization disbursement and does not name recipients. Independent expenditures and committee transfers live in other FEC tables.

Neither the IBM hub nor the 2008 election cycle hub is this number; each hub drops one of the two keys. Five hundred thirty-nine donors and 1,371 lines in 2008 sit under the three-letter IBM employer string. Expanding the acronym into International Business Machines would point at a different key if filers typed the words out. MICROSOFT is a neighboring technology brand, not a share of this cell. I.B.M., INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES, IBM CORP, and MICROSOFT or GOOGLE as other technology-employer strings are other keys.

6.8% of the IBM roll

The grouping’s stored total across cycles is $10,520,465 ($10.5 million). The 2008 slice of $717,228 is about 6.8% of that running sum. Other even-year windows hold the remaining 93.2% ($9,803,237). Treating 2008 as the IBM FEC story would ignore that remainder.

Treat $10,520,465 as the denominator for the 6.8% share. It is not market capitalization, not revenue, and not proof of a multi-year political program. The industry hub is the year index for this string. This tie keeps 2008 from being folded silently into $10,520,465.

1,371 contributions from 539 donors

Dividing $717,228 by 1,371 contributions yields about $523 per itemized gift. Dividing by 539 donors yields about $1,331 per donor. Contributions per donor average about 2.5. Those means describe the arithmetic on the packet. They are not medians and not a party split.

539 unique donors are contributor identities, not a headcount of employees, licensees, or members. Retirees and household members who reuse a workplace or title can appear. Repeat gifts raise the contribution count faster than the donor count. The overlay for IBM 2008 holds the rows.

2008 as the cycle dimension

The 2008 election cycle hub includes every stored employer for that window. IBM is one cell in that matrix. This packet does not publish a cycle-wide denominator, so no national share is stated. Open the 2008 election cycle to drop the employer filter and IBM to drop the year. 2008 is a presidential even-year window on FEC.gov; that calendar label does not explain $717,228.

Gifts from both years of the two-year FEC window sit in the $717,228 cell because the cycle is a two-year tag, not a single Tuesday. That mechanical fact is easy to forget when a searcher wants an election-night number. The overlay is where dates become visible. This join publishes the cycle total, the 1,371 contributions, the 539 unique donors, and the 6.8% share of $10,520,465.

What the Commission does not verify

Itemized individual receipts are the universe. Unitemized gifts, independent expenditures, and PAC disbursements sit outside $717,228. Federal awards in other databases are different datasets. Sharing an employer string and a calendar year does not turn these gifts into contracts or grants. The page is not an IBM PAC and not an IT-services NAICS total.

Correlation between an employer or occupation string and a cycle year is not causation. The records show a text match, a date window, 539 donors, and 1,371 contributions. The FEC does not certify that the 539 identities were on IBM’s 2008 payroll. Alumni and household members who reuse the letters can appear. Federal IT awards in USAspending are a different dataset and are not funded by these itemized gifts. All FEC ties lists other two-dimension pages.

Citing IBM and 2008 together

Start with $717,228, then IBM 2008 for rows, then the industry hub or the 2008 election cycle if a filter needs to come off. Citation template: IBM, 2008, $717,228, 1,371 contributions, 539 donors, 6.8% of $10,520,465, source FEC.gov. Keep neighboring spellings and occupation titles out of the total unless they grouped to this exact string IBM.

The 6.8% share, the 539-donor count, and the $523 mean gift belong to this intersection. Carry them onto a successor label or a sibling occupation word and they stop being facts from this packet. This prose is a packet snapshot. If a later extract disagrees, FEC.gov and the live overlay control.

Questions

How much did IBM donors give in 2008?

FEC.gov aggregates show $717,228 in itemized individual contributions for the IBM grouping in the 2008 cycle, across 1,371 contributions and 539 donors. That sum is not a PAC total and not the $10,520,465 all-cycle figure.

What share of IBM FEC money is 2008?

The grouping’s all-cycle total is $10,520,465. The 2008 cell of $717,228 is about 6.8% of that figure. Other cycles hold the remaining 93.2% ($9,803,237) on the industry hub. The overlay lists itemized rows for this cell; the IBM hub holds other cycles; the 2008 election cycle hub holds other employer strings from the same window.

Is $717,228 the IBM PAC total for 2008?

No. $717,228 is itemized individual contributions whose employer field grouped to IBM in the 2008 cycle. It is not committee disbursements, not independent expenditures, and not a verified employee census. 1,371 contributions came from 539 donors. The overlay lists itemized rows for this cell; the IBM hub holds other cycles; the 2008 election cycle hub holds other employer strings from the same window.

Where is the overlay for the IBM 2008 join?

Open IBM 2008 for the cycle overlay, IBM for the grouping hub, and the 2008 election cycle for the year without this employer filter. All FEC ties lists other two-dimension pages. This JSON file names the join; the overlay holds the itemized rows.