Silver Spring, MD political money — 2012 cycle

Silver Spring, MD meets the 2012 presidential cycle

$177,950 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city SILVER SPRING with state MD, and election cycle 2012. The match is $177,950 across 79 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $66,804,144. 2012 therefore accounts for 0.27% of Silver Spring, MD itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $66,626,194 (99.7%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of Silver Spring, MD. That hub mixes 2012 with every other even-year window filed under SILVER SPRING. It is also not a restatement of the 2012 election cycle hub, which mixes Silver Spring, MD with every other donor city in the United States. The 79 rows and $177,950 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.

SILVER SPRING as a Montgomery County city key

Across cycles in this extract, contributor city SILVER SPRING in Maryland totals $66.8 million ($66,804,144). $177,950 is 0.27% of that city book. A small share does not mean 2012 was quiet in Silver Spring; it means later or earlier cycles in the same city string can dwarf a single window. Do not add $177,950 to $66,804,144; the city book already contains this slice. Subtracting is valid: $66,804,144 − $177,950 = $66,626,194 in other cycles.

The stored city sits in Montgomery County, Maryland, inside the Capital Beltway. Takoma Park, Wheaton, and Bethesda are other FEC city strings, not rolled into SILVER SPRING. State MD stays on the citation so Silver Spring is not merged with a same-named place in another state. $66.8 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.

How FEC tags 2012 on Silver Spring 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, Silver Spring, MD filers itemized $177,950 on 79 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $2,253 per itemized gift ($177,950 ÷ 79). 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 79-row extract — compact for this CDP string, still receipts 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 Silver Spring × 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 $177,950 into the state hub a second time.

2012 versus the rest of the Silver Spring book

0.27% of $66,804,144 is the 2012 slice. Put another way, about 0.27% of Silver Spring, MD’s itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2012, and about 99.7% were not. Those percentages are $177,950 divided by $66,804,144 and $66,626,194 divided by $66,804,144. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (0.27%) and row volume (79 itemized gifts) are separate facts. Washington, DC is a different state key. A Silver Spring, MD row is not merged into District of Columbia city totals. This packet does not include a citywide row count across all cycles, so a row-share percentage is not computed. Do not treat 0.27% as Silver Spring’s share of the 2012 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts.

79 itemized gifts are not a unique-donor count

79 itemized contributions totaling $177,950 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 SILVER SPRING. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of Silver Spring versus other Maryland cities: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean gift size of about $2,253 uses only the two numbers in the join: $177,950 and 79 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 $177,950 out by occupation, industry, or recipient committee. City labels are filer-entered. A donor who typed SILVER SPRING is counted; a donor who typed a neighborhood, a firm city, or a nearby suburb is not recoded into Silver Spring.

What Silver Spring × 2012 cannot answer

This page does not rank Silver Spring 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 Silver Spring, MD hub or the live 2012 cycle hub disagrees with this prose, the newer FEC extract controls. Silver Spring is often a Census-designated place on maps. FEC still stores whatever city string the filer typed; this join is SILVER SPRING in MD only.

Unitemized gifts, independent expenditures, and non-individual sources are omitted. See Silver Spring, MD, the 2012 election cycle, Maryland campaign finance, and All FEC ties for the adjacent tables. Rockville and Gaithersburg are other Montgomery County strings. They are not absorbed into SILVER SPRING. 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 Silver Spring, MD donors give in the 2012 election cycle?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Silver Spring, MD total $177,950 in the 2012 cycle, across 79 contribution records. The same city label totals $66,804,144 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2012 is 0.27% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is Silver Spring’s citywide total only 2012 money?

No. The city aggregate of $66,804,144 covers every cycle in the table for SILVER SPRING. The 2012 filter is $177,950 from 79 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $66,626,194. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2012 slice.

Did 2012 Silver Spring donations stay in Maryland?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Silver Spring, MD; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $177,950 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 Silver Spring, MD contributions were itemized in 2012?

79 itemized contribution records sum to $177,950. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $2,253 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.