Baltimore, MD political money — 2012 cycle
Donors listing Baltimore, MD as their city itemized $2,015,484 in federal individual contributions during the 2012 election cycle. Those 196 contribution records sit inside a citywide FEC aggregate of $116,865,577 for Baltimore, MD across every cycle in this table. This page joins two FEC fields — donor city BALTIMORE and election cycle 2012 — rather than restating the city hub or the national cycle hub. Figures come from FEC.gov itemized individual contribution aggregates. They are not PAC transfers, independent expenditures, or unitemized gifts, and they do not assign motive to any contributor.
Key figures
- Baltimore, MD donors itemized $2,015,484 in the 2012 FEC cycle across 196 contributions.
- The Baltimore, MD city aggregate across cycles is $116,865,577; 2012 is 1.7% of that total.
- This page joins donor city Baltimore with election cycle 2012; it is not the city hub or the national cycle hub.
- Donor city is not recipient city; the $2,015,484 is not allocated by office or party here.
- Mean itemized gift size is about $10,283 ($2,015,484 / 196 rows), not a unique-donor average.
Baltimore, MD and the 2012 election cycle
The join keeps donor city Baltimore in Maryland and election cycle 2012. The match is $2,015,484 across 196 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $116,865,577. 2012 therefore accounts for 1.7% of Baltimore, MD itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $114,850,093 (98.3%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.
This is not a restatement of Baltimore, MD. That hub mixes 2012 with every other even-year window filed under BALTIMORE. It is also not a restatement of the 2012 election cycle hub, which mixes Baltimore, MD with every other donor city in the United States. The 196 rows and $2,015,484 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, abbreviations, and suburb-versus-city choices can split a metro across multiple city pages. Baltimore, MD here is the string that survived aggregation as BALTIMORE in MD. 2012 is a presidential FEC cycle: a two-year window that includes a presidential general election. This page does not split the $2,015,484 by office, party, or candidate. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.
What the Baltimore, MD city total covers
The city aggregate for Baltimore, MD is $116,865,577 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 $2,015,484 from 2012 and the $114,850,093 from every other cycle in the same city file. Maryland campaign-finance pages still mix Baltimore with every other city in Maryland.
A large city total does not mean 2012 was large, and a small city total does not mean 2012 was small. For Baltimore, MD, the city stack is $116,865,577 while this cycle is $2,015,484 (1.7%). Use the city hub to see Baltimore, MD without a year filter, and use this tie page when the question is specifically Baltimore in 2012. Donor city is not the same as recipient city: committees that received these gifts can be anywhere in the FEC system.
The 2012 cycle slice: 196 itemized gifts
The 2012 election cycle is a two-year FEC reporting window labeled by its even year. Inside that window, Baltimore, MD donors itemized $2,015,484 on 196 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $10,283 per itemized gift. That mean is an arithmetic average of rows, not a typical donor and not a median. A few large receipts can lift the mean while most rows sit far below it. This page does not publish a median or a unique-donor count.
The national 2012 hub still includes every other city. State pages for Maryland still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates Baltimore × 2012. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. Independent expenditures, party coordinated spends, and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables. 196 itemized rows is a moderate file. The $2,015,484 can still be skewed by a few large gifts without this page naming them. Adjacent pages for Baltimore, MD, 2012 election cycle, and Maryland campaign finance keep those broader cuts; this URL is the intersection only.
1.7% of citywide FEC dollars
1.7% of $116,865,577 is a modest slice. Most of the Baltimore, MD aggregate — $114,850,093 — sits in other cycles. Put another way, about 1.7% of Baltimore, MD's itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2012, and about 98.3% were not. Those percentages are $2,015,484 divided by $116,865,577 and $114,850,093 divided by $116,865,577. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.
Dollar share (1.7%) and row volume (196 itemized gifts) are separate facts. A modest slice of citywide dollars can sit next to a moderate contribution 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 1.7% as Baltimore's share of the 2012 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts.
Itemized rows, not a census of every donor
196 itemized contributions totaling $2,015,484 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 BALTIMORE. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of Baltimore versus other Maryland cities: this join has one geography and one cycle.
Mean gift size of about $10,283 uses only the two numbers in the join: $2,015,484 and 196 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 $2,015,484 out by occupation, industry, or recipient committee.
What this join is not
This page does not rank Baltimore against other cities, does not call 2012 a wave, and does not treat itemized giving as a proxy for public opinion in Maryland. Two columns matched. The city of the contributor is not the city of the campaign. A MD address on an individual receipt does not mean the money supported a Maryland candidate.
Unitemized gifts, independent expenditures, and non-individual sources are omitted. See Baltimore, MD, the 2012 election cycle, Maryland 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 Baltimore, MD donors give in the 2012 election cycle?
- FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Baltimore, MD total $2,015,484 in the 2012 cycle, across 196 contribution records. The same city label totals $116,865,577 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2012 is 1.7% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.
- Is the Baltimore, MD city total only for 2012?
- No. The city aggregate of $116,865,577 covers every cycle in the table for BALTIMORE. The 2012 filter is $2,015,484 from 196 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $114,850,093. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2012 slice.
- Did Baltimore, MD 2012 donations stay in Maryland?
- Not necessarily. Donor city is Baltimore, MD; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $2,015,484 by office, state of the committee, or party. A MD city code is an address field on the individual receipt, not a map of Maryland races.
- How many Baltimore, MD contributions were itemized in 2012?
- 196 itemized contribution records sum to $2,015,484. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $10,283 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.
FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.