Potomac, MD political money — 2012 cycle

Potomac, MD meets the 2012 presidential cycle

$173,795 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city POTOMAC with state MD, and election cycle 2012. The match is $173,795 across 188 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $97,890,043. 2012 therefore accounts for 0.18% of Potomac, MD itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $97,716,248 (99.8%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of Potomac, MD. That hub mixes 2012 with every other even-year window filed under POTOMAC. It is also not a restatement of the 2012 election cycle hub, which mixes Potomac, MD with every other donor city in the United States. The 188 rows and $173,795 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.

POTOMAC as a Montgomery County address string

Across cycles in this extract, contributor city POTOMAC in Maryland totals $97.9 million ($97,890,043). $173,795 is 0.18% of that city book. A small share does not mean 2012 was quiet in Potomac; it means later or earlier cycles in the same city string can dwarf a single window. Do not add $173,795 to $97,890,043; the city book already contains this slice. Subtracting is valid: $97,890,043 − $173,795 = $97,716,248 in other cycles.

The stored city sits in Montgomery County, Maryland, along the Potomac River. Rockville, Bethesda, and Great Falls, VA are other city keys; Virginia strings are a different state. State MD stays on the citation so Potomac is not merged with a same-named place in another state. $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.

Presidential-cycle coding for Potomac 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, Potomac, MD filers itemized $173,795 on 188 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $924 per itemized gift ($173,795 ÷ 188). 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 188-row extract — a mid-size receipt file for this CDP string, still rows rather than unique residents. The national 2012 hub still includes every other city. State pages for Maryland still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates Potomac × 2012. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. Independent expenditures and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables. Maryland campaign-finance pages already contain this city when the same extract is used; do not add $173,795 into the state hub a second time.

2012 inside a large Potomac city book

0.18% of $97,890,043 is the 2012 slice. Put another way, about 0.18% of Potomac, MD’s itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2012, and about 99.8% were not. Those percentages are $173,795 divided by $97,890,043 and $97,716,248 divided by $97,890,043. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (0.18%) and row volume (188 itemized gifts) are separate facts. Silver Spring is another Montgomery County string with its own joins. POTOMAC is not a county rollup. 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 Potomac’s share of the 2012 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts.

188 lines omit unitemized gifts and IEs

188 itemized contributions totaling $173,795 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 POTOMAC. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of Potomac versus other Maryland cities: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean gift size of about $924 uses only the two numbers in the join: $173,795 and 188 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 $173,795 out by occupation, industry, or recipient committee. 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.

Limits of a Potomac–2012 geographic join

This page does not rank Potomac 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. A MD address on an individual receipt does not mean the money supported a Maryland candidate. Amended reports can move either number. If the live Potomac, MD hub or the live 2012 cycle hub disagrees with this prose, the newer FEC extract controls. The river name is map context. The FEC field is the city string POTOMAC in MD, not a watershed total.

Unitemized gifts, independent expenditures, and non-individual sources are omitted. See Potomac, MD, the 2012 election cycle, Maryland campaign finance, and All FEC ties for the adjacent tables. McLean, Virginia, across the river, is a different state-and-city key even when the commute is the same. 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 Potomac, MD donors give in the 2012 election cycle?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Potomac, MD total $173,795 in the 2012 cycle, across 188 contribution records. The same city label totals $97,890,043 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2012 is 0.18% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Does Potomac’s city book cover only 2012?

No. The city aggregate of $97,890,043 covers every cycle in the table for POTOMAC. The 2012 filter is $173,795 from 188 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $97,716,248. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2012 slice.

Did 2012 Potomac itemized gifts 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 $173,795 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 2012?

188 itemized contribution records sum to $173,795. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $924 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.