Kalamazoo, MI political money — 2014 cycle

Kalamazoo, MI × 2014 is a sparse receipt join

$180,843 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city KALAMAZOO with state MI, and election cycle 2014. The match is $180,843 across 21 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $37,505,162. 2014 therefore accounts for 0.48% of Kalamazoo, MI itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $37,324,319 (99.5%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of Kalamazoo, MI. That hub mixes 2014 with every other even-year window filed under KALAMAZOO. It is also not a restatement of the 2014 election cycle hub, which mixes Kalamazoo, MI with every other donor city in the United States. The 21 rows and $180,843 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.

KALAMAZOO as a southwest Michigan city key

Across cycles in this extract, contributor city KALAMAZOO in Michigan totals $37.5 million ($37,505,162). $180,843 is 0.48% of that city book. A small share does not mean 2014 was quiet in Kalamazoo; it means later or earlier cycles in the same city string can dwarf a single window. Do not add $180,843 to $37,505,162; the city book already contains this slice. Subtracting is valid: $37,505,162 − $180,843 = $37,324,319 in other cycles.

The stored city sits in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. Portage, Battle Creek, and Kalamazoo Township labels are other FEC strings when filers typed them that way. State MI stays on the citation so Kalamazoo is not merged with a same-named place in another state. $37.5 million is the MI key only. Donor city is not recipient city: committees that received these gifts can file from anywhere in the FEC system.

The 2014 midterm window on 21 Kalamazoo lines

Federal election cycles are two-year windows on FEC.gov. 2014 is a midterm election cycle: a two-year FEC window labeled by its even year, without a presidential general on the ballot. Inside that window, Kalamazoo, MI filers itemized $180,843 on 21 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $8,612 per itemized gift ($180,843 ÷ 21). 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 thin 21-row extract: few lines relative to the cycle dollar, which lifts the arithmetic mean. The national 2014 hub still includes every other city. State pages for Michigan still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates Kalamazoo × 2014. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. Independent expenditures and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables. Michigan campaign-finance pages already contain this city when the same extract is used; do not add $180,843 into the state hub a second time.

How 21 rows sit inside a multi-cycle city book

0.48% of $37,505,162 is the 2014 slice. Put another way, about 0.48% of Kalamazoo, MI’s itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2014, and about 99.5% were not. Those percentages are $180,843 divided by $37,505,162 and $37,324,319 divided by $37,505,162. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (0.48%) and row volume (21 itemized gifts) are separate facts. Twenty-one itemized rows can be one household giving many times, many households giving once, or an office address reused. This packet does not say which. This packet does not include a citywide row count across all cycles, so a row-share percentage is not computed. Do not treat 0.48% as Kalamazoo’s share of the 2014 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts.

A high mean is division, not a typical resident

21 itemized contributions totaling $180,843 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 KALAMAZOO. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of Kalamazoo versus other Michigan cities: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean gift size of about $8,612 uses only the two numbers in the join: $180,843 and 21 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 $180,843 out by occupation, industry, or recipient committee. City labels are filer-entered. A donor who typed KALAMAZOO is counted; a donor who typed a neighborhood, a firm city, or a nearby suburb is not recoded into Kalamazoo.

What Kalamazoo–2014 cannot support

This page does not rank Kalamazoo against other cities, does not call 2014 a wave, and does not treat itemized giving as a proxy for public opinion in Michigan. Two columns matched. A MI address on an individual receipt does not mean the money supported a Michigan candidate. Amended reports can move either number. If the live Kalamazoo, MI hub or the live 2014 cycle hub disagrees with this prose, the newer FEC extract controls. A thin file is not a finding that Kalamazoo sat out 2014. Unitemized gifts and other city spellings sit outside the 21 lines.

Unitemized gifts, independent expenditures, and non-individual sources are omitted. See Kalamazoo, MI, the 2014 election cycle, Michigan campaign finance, and All FEC ties for the adjacent tables. Grand Rapids and Detroit are other Michigan city keys. They are not parents of KALAMAZOO and are not in this join. 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 Kalamazoo, MI donors give in the 2014 election cycle?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Kalamazoo, MI total $180,843 in the 2014 cycle, across 21 contribution records. The same city label totals $37,505,162 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2014 is 0.48% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is Kalamazoo’s citywide total the same as the 2014 slice?

No. The city aggregate of $37,505,162 covers every cycle in the table for KALAMAZOO. The 2014 filter is $180,843 from 21 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $37,324,319. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2014 slice.

Did 2014 Kalamazoo donations stay with Michigan candidates?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Kalamazoo, MI; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $180,843 by office, state of the committee, or party. A MI city code is an address field on the individual receipt, not a map of Michigan races.

How many Kalamazoo, MI contributions were itemized in 2014?

21 itemized contribution records sum to $180,843. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $8,612 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.