Lake Forest, IL political money — 2008 cycle

How Lake Forest, IL meets the 2008 election cycle

$285,053 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city LAKE FOREST with state IL, and election cycle 2008. The match is $285,053 across 163 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $157,374,022. 2008 therefore accounts for 0.18% of Lake Forest, IL itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $157,088,969 (99.8%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of Lake Forest, IL. That hub mixes 2008 with every other even-year window filed under LAKE FOREST. It is also not a restatement of the 2008 election cycle hub, which mixes Lake Forest, IL with every other donor city in the United States. The 163 rows and $285,053 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. Spellings and suburb-versus-city choices can split a metro across multiple city pages. Lake Forest, IL here is the string that survived aggregation as LAKE FOREST in IL. 2008 is a presidential FEC cycle: a two-year window that includes a presidential general election. That calendar fact does not explain why Lake Forest, IL donors itemized $285,053. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

The Lake Forest, IL side of the join

The city aggregate for Lake Forest, IL is $157,374,022 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 $285,053 from 2008 and the $157,088,969 from every other cycle in the same city file. Illinois campaign-finance pages still mix Lake Forest with every other city in Illinois.

The stored city sits in Lake County, Illinois, on the North Shore. Lake Forest, California is a different FEC key (state CA). Chicago, Highland Park, and Lake Bluff are not rolled into LAKE FOREST. State IL stays on the citation. $157,374,022 is the IL key only. A large city total does not mean 2008 was large, and a small city total does not mean 2008 was small. For Lake Forest, IL, the city stack is $157,374,022 while this cycle is $285,053 (0.18%). Use the city hub to see Lake Forest, IL without a year filter, and use this tie page when the question is specifically Lake Forest in 2008. Donor city is not the same as recipient city: committees that received these gifts can be anywhere in the FEC system.

The 2008 cycle side for Illinois filers in Lake Forest

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, Lake Forest, IL donors itemized $285,053 on 163 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $1,749 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 Illinois still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates Lake Forest × 2008. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. Independent expenditures and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables. 163 itemized rows is a modest file. Adjacent pages for Lake Forest, IL, 2008 election cycle, and Illinois campaign finance keep those broader cuts; this URL is the intersection only.

2008 versus the rest of Lake Forest

0.18% of $157,374,022 is a very small slice. The city hub is mostly other even-year windows, totaling $157,088,969. Put another way, about 0.18% of Lake Forest, IL's itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2008, and about 99.8% were not. Those percentages are $285,053 divided by $157,374,022 and $157,088,969 divided by $157,374,022. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (0.18%) and row volume (163 itemized gifts) are separate facts. A very small slice of citywide dollars can sit next to a modest file; those labels describe this pair, not other cities. This packet does not include a citywide row count across all cycles, so a row-share percentage is not computed. Do not treat 0.18% as Lake Forest's share of the 2008 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts.

Counts, dollars, and what they omit

163 itemized contributions totaling $285,053 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 LAKE FOREST. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of Lake Forest versus other Illinois cities: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean gift size of about $1,749 uses only the two numbers in the join: $285,053 and 163 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 city-cycle page does not break the $285,053 out by occupation, industry, or recipient committee. City labels are filer-entered. A donor who typed LAKE FOREST is counted; a donor who typed a neighborhood, a firm city, or a nearby suburb is not recoded into Lake Forest.

Caveats on a geographic-cycle join

This page does not rank Lake Forest against other cities, does not call 2008 a wave, and does not treat itemized giving as a proxy for public opinion in Illinois. Two columns matched. The city of the contributor is not the city of the campaign. A IL address on an individual receipt does not mean the money supported a Illinois candidate. Amended reports can move either number. If the live Lake Forest, IL 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 Lake Forest, IL, the 2008 election cycle, Illinois 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 Lake Forest, IL donors give in the 2008 election cycle?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Lake Forest, IL total $285,053 in the 2008 cycle, across 163 contribution records. The same city label totals $157,374,022 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2008 is 0.18% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is the Lake Forest, IL city total only for 2008?

No. The city aggregate of $157,374,022 covers every cycle in the table for LAKE FOREST. The 2008 filter is $285,053 from 163 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $157,088,969. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2008 slice.

Did Lake Forest, IL 2008 donations stay in Illinois?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Lake Forest, IL; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $285,053 by office, state of the committee, or party. A IL city code is an address field on the individual receipt, not a map of Illinois races.

How many Lake Forest, IL contributions were itemized in 2008?

163 itemized contribution records sum to $285,053. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $1,749 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.