Rockford, IL political money — 2012 cycle

Rockford, IL × 2012 isolates one even-year tag

$181,929 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city ROCKFORD with state IL, and election cycle 2012. The match is $181,929 across 255 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $15,552,687. 2012 therefore accounts for 1.2% of Rockford, IL itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $15,370,758 (98.8%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of Rockford, IL. That hub mixes 2012 with every other even-year window filed under ROCKFORD. It is also not a restatement of the 2012 election cycle hub, which mixes Rockford, IL with every other donor city in the United States. The 255 rows and $181,929 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.

ROCKFORD as a northern Illinois city string

Across cycles in this extract, contributor city ROCKFORD in Illinois totals $15.6 million ($15,552,687). $181,929 is 1.2% of that city book. A small share does not mean 2012 was quiet in Rockford; it means later or earlier cycles in the same city string can dwarf a single window. Do not add $181,929 to $15,552,687; the city book already contains this slice. Subtracting is valid: $15,552,687 − $181,929 = $15,370,758 in other cycles.

The stored city sits in Winnebago County, Illinois, near the Wisconsin line. Belvidere and Loves Park are other FEC city strings, not subsets of ROCKFORD. State IL stays on the citation so Rockford is not merged with a same-named place in another state. $15.6 million is the IL key only. Donor city is not recipient city: committees that received these gifts can file from anywhere in the FEC system.

Presidential-cycle coding for Rockford receipts

Federal election cycles are two-year windows on FEC.gov. 2012 is a presidential election cycle: a two-year FEC window that includes a presidential general election. Inside that window, Rockford, IL filers itemized $181,929 on 255 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $713 per itemized gift ($181,929 ÷ 255). That mean is an arithmetic average of rows, not a typical resident and not a median. This page does not publish a median or a unique-donor count.

a 255-row extract — among the thicker city-cycle files in this packet’s contribution count — still a receipt stack, not unique residents. The national 2012 hub still includes every other city. State pages for Illinois still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates Rockford × 2012. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. Independent expenditures and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables. Illinois campaign-finance pages already contain this city when the same extract is used; do not add $181,929 into the state hub a second time.

2012 as a larger share of a smaller city book

1.2% of $15,552,687 is the 2012 slice. Put another way, about 1.2% of Rockford, IL’s itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2012, and about 98.8% were not. Those percentages are $181,929 divided by $15,552,687 and $15,370,758 divided by $15,552,687. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (1.2%) and row volume (255 itemized gifts) are separate facts. A thicker receipt file does not mean Rockford outranked other Illinois cities. This packet has one geography and does not publish a ranking. This packet does not include a citywide row count across all cycles, so a row-share percentage is not computed. Do not treat 1.2% as Rockford’s share of the 2012 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts.

255 itemized lines and what division cannot show

255 itemized contributions totaling $181,929 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 ROCKFORD. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of Rockford versus other Illinois cities: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean gift size of about $713 uses only the two numbers in the join: $181,929 and 255 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 $181,929 out by occupation, industry, or recipient committee. City labels are filer-entered. A donor who typed ROCKFORD is counted; a donor who typed a neighborhood, a firm city, or a nearby suburb is not recoded into Rockford.

Caveats on a Rockford–2012 join

This page does not rank Rockford against other cities, does not call 2012 a wave, and does not treat itemized giving as a proxy for public opinion in Illinois. Two columns matched. 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 Rockford, IL hub or the live 2012 cycle hub disagrees with this prose, the newer FEC extract controls. The city book is smaller than coastal hub books in this extract, so a similar cycle dollar can be a larger share. Share is division, not influence.

Unitemized gifts, independent expenditures, and non-individual sources are omitted. See Rockford, IL, the 2012 election cycle, Illinois campaign finance, and All FEC ties for the adjacent tables. Janesville, Wisconsin, across the state line, is a different state-and-city key even when the commute story is regional. 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 Rockford, IL donors give in the 2012 election cycle?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Rockford, IL total $181,929 in the 2012 cycle, across 255 contribution records. The same city label totals $15,552,687 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2012 is 1.2% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is Rockford’s all-cycle total the same as the 2012 figure?

No. The city aggregate of $15,552,687 covers every cycle in the table for ROCKFORD. The 2012 filter is $181,929 from 255 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $15,370,758. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2012 slice.

Did Rockford 2012 donations fund Illinois candidates only?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Rockford, IL; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $181,929 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 Rockford, IL contributions were itemized in 2012?

255 itemized contribution records sum to $181,929. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $713 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.