Potomac, MD political money in the 2008 election cycle

How Potomac meets the 2008 election cycle

$265,548 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city POTOMAC with state MD, and election cycle 2008. LobbyVault stores that join so a reader can open the Potomac, MD city hub and the 2008 election cycle hub without treating either page as a substitute for this one. The city hub answers how much itemized money this city string has produced across cycles. The cycle hub answers how much itemized money that two-year federal window produced nationally. This page answers only the intersection: Potomac, MD in 2008.

260 is a receipt count for that intersection, not a unique-donor census. A person who gave twice is two lines. A PAC or joint-fundraising address that stored POTOMAC is in the same city field as a household street. Arithmetic mean per line is about $1,021 ($265,548 ÷ 260). That mean is division, not a typical resident and not a median.

2008 is a presidential election cycle. That calendar label does not explain $265,548. This packet does not carry party splits, committee names, or occupation mix for the join. Cite the two packet dollars — $265,548 for the 2008 slice and $97.9 million for the Potomac, MD book — and stop before assigning motive.

The Potomac, MD side of the join

Across cycles in this extract, contributor city POTOMAC in Maryland totals $97.9 million ($97,890,043). $265,548 is 0.3% of that city book. A small share does not mean 2008 was quiet in Potomac; it means later or earlier cycles in the same city string can dwarf a single window. The remaining $97,624,495 in the city book sits in other even-year tags. The live Potomac, MD table is the place to compare other years. This snapshot lists one cycle.

The stored city sits in Montgomery County, Maryland. Bethesda and Rockville are separate FEC city keys and are not rolled into POTOMAC. State MD stays on the citation so Potomac is not merged with a same-named place in another state. A repeated city name under another state code is a different FEC key. $97.9 million is the MD key only. Donor city is not recipient city: committees that received these gifts can file from anywhere in the FEC system.

The 2008 cycle side for Maryland filers in Potomac

Federal election cycles are two-year windows on FEC.gov. The 2008 cycle is not a calendar year of January gifts only; it is the Commission's cycle tag on itemized receipts. 260 Potomac, MD lines in that window produced $265,548. National 2008 activity — every city — lives on the 2008 election cycle hub, not here. A presidential label marks the even-year window that includes a presidential general election, not a finding about turnout in Potomac.

Maryland campaign-finance pages roll up the state, including cities that are not Potomac. Do not add $265,548 to a state total from that hub; the state page already contains this city when the same extract is used. All FEC ties is the directory of other city-cycle and city-industry joins. None of those pages converts $265,548 into spending by Potomac candidates. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted from both $265,548 and the $97.9 million city book.

What $265,548 does not measure

$265,548 is itemized federal individual contributions with contributor city POTOMAC. Unitemized gifts below the itemization threshold sit outside it. State-office campaigns in Maryland file under state law and sit outside it. Independent-expenditure totals are a different FEC table. A candidate who lives in Potomac can raise money from other cities; those gifts are not this join. PAC transfers and committee-to-committee activity are other files.

City labels are filer-entered. A donor who typed POTOMAC is counted; a donor who typed a neighborhood, a firm city, or a nearby suburb is not recoded into Potomac. LobbyVault does not rewrite the city field into a Census place or a residency test. Treat 260 as lines that stored this string in 2008. This packet does not include a citywide row count across all cycles, so a row-share percentage is not computed.

Reading Potomac and 2008 together without mixing tables

Correlation is not causation. $265,548 beside $97.9 million does not mean 2008 caused the city book or that Potomac drove the 2008 cycle. The join is a filter: city string plus cycle tag. Amended reports can move either number. If the live Potomac, MD hub or the live 2008 cycle hub disagrees with this prose, the newer FEC extract controls. This snapshot is not a third disclosure system.

Internal links on this page go to Potomac, MD, the 2008 election cycle, Maryland campaign finance, and All FEC ties. Use those four doors. Do not paste $265,548 into a USAspending award story; FEC receipts and federal obligations are different statutes. This packet has no award dollars, and itemized giving is not a proxy for public opinion in Maryland.

A 0.3% cut of the Potomac stack

0.3% of $97.9 million is a slice, not a ranking. Put another way, $265,548 of the $97,890,043 city stack was tagged 2008, and $97,624,495 was tagged other cycles. Those percentages are $265,548 divided by $97,890,043 and $97,624,495 divided by $97,890,043. They are not shares of Maryland totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters. Dollar share (0.3%) and row volume (260 itemized gifts) are separate facts.

Do not treat 0.3% as Potomac's share of the 2008 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts. Adjacent midterm windows for the same city string are other joins. This URL isolates Potomac × 2008 only: $265,548, 260 receipts, mean about $1,021. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

Questions

How much did Potomac, MD donors give in 2008?

Itemized FEC individual contributions listing contributor city POTOMAC and cycle 2008 total $265,548 across 260 receipts in this LobbyVault extract. That is the city-cycle join, not the all-cycle Potomac, MD book of $97.9 million. Unitemized gifts and Maryland state-office filings sit outside both figures.

Is $265,548 all of Potomac's federal political money?

No. $97.9 million ($97,890,043) is the all-cycle itemized book for contributor city POTOMAC in MD. The 2008 slice is $265,548, 0.3% of that book. Other cycles hold $97,624,495. 260 is a 2008 receipt count, not a unique-donor count.

Did Potomac, MD 2008 donations stay in Maryland?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Potomac, MD; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $265,548 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 Potomac, MD contributions were itemized in 2008?

260 itemized contribution records sum to $265,548. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $1,021 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.