Boston, MA political money — 2008 cycle

Reading Boston against cycle 2008

$612,230 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city BOSTON with state MA, and election cycle 2008. The match is $612,230 across 423 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $280,702,761. 2008 therefore accounts for 0.22% of Boston, MA itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $280,090,531 (99.78%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of Boston, MA. That hub mixes 2008 with every other even-year window filed under BOSTON. It is also not a restatement of the 2008 election cycle hub, which mixes Boston, MA with every other donor city in the United States. The 423 rows and $612,230 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. Boston, MA here is the string that survived aggregation as BOSTON in MA. 2008 is a presidential FEC cycle: a two-year window that includes a presidential general election. That calendar fact does not explain why Boston, MA donors itemized $612,230. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

Boston's city aggregate, without a year filter

The city aggregate for Boston, MA is $280,702,761 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 $612,230 from 2008 and the $280,090,531 from every other cycle in the same city file. State-level MA campaign-finance pages still mix Boston with every other city in MA.

The stored city is the City of Boston in Suffolk County, Massachusetts. Cambridge, Brookline, and Somerville are not rolled into BOSTON. State MA stays on the citation so Boston, MA is not merged with a same-named place in another state. $280,702,761 is the MA key only. For Boston, MA, the city stack is $280,702,761 while this cycle is $612,230 (0.22%). Use the city hub for Boston, MA without a year filter; use this tie for Boston in 2008. Donor city is not recipient city: committees that received these gifts can file anywhere in the FEC system. Chestnut Hill and Weston are other Massachusetts city strings.

Isolating Boston 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, Boston, MA donors itemized $612,230 on 423 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $1,447 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 MA still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates Boston × 2008. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. Independent expenditures and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables. 423 itemized contribution records produced $612,230. Mean about $1,447 per row is division, not a median and not a unique-donor average. This URL is the intersection only.

Where $612,230 sits inside $280.7 million

0.22% of $280,702,761 is a slice of the city book, not a ranking against other cities. Put another way, about 0.22% of Boston, MA's itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2008, and about 99.78% were not. Those percentages are $612,230 divided by $280,702,761 and $280,090,531 divided by $280,702,761. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (0.22%) and row volume (423 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 0.22% as Boston's share of the 2008 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts. Suffolk County is a geography note for readers; it is not a Census population weight on $612,230.

Schedule A city strings and missing tables

423 itemized contributions totaling $612,230 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 BOSTON. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of Boston versus other MA cities: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean gift size of about $1,447 uses only the two numbers in the join: $612,230 and 423 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 $612,230 out by occupation, industry, or recipient committee. City labels are filer-entered. A donor who typed BOSTON is counted; a nearby suburb they typed instead is not recoded into Boston.

Citing this pair on FEC.gov terms

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

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Boston, MA total $612,230 in the 2008 cycle, across 423 contribution records. The same city label totals $280,702,761 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2008 is 0.22% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is the Boston, MA city total only for 2008?

No. The city aggregate of $280,702,761 covers every cycle in the table for BOSTON. The 2008 filter is $612,230 from 423 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $280,090,531. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2008 slice.

Did Boston, MA 2008 donations stay in MA?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Boston, MA; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $612,230 by office, state of the committee, or party. A MA city code is an address field on the individual receipt, not a map of MA races.

How many Boston, MA contributions were itemized in 2008?

423 itemized contribution records sum to $612,230. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $1,447 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.