St Paul, MN political money — 2008 cycle

St Paul, MN × 2008: the join

$245,378 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city ST PAUL with state MN, and election cycle 2008. The match is $245,378 across 252 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $39,406,084. 2008 therefore accounts for 0.62% of St Paul, MN itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $39,160,706 (99.38%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of St Paul, MN. That hub mixes 2008 with every other even-year window filed under ST PAUL. It is also not a restatement of the 2008 election cycle hub, which mixes St Paul, MN with every other donor city in the United States. The 252 rows and $245,378 exist only where both filters are true. Correlation is not causation: a city code plus a cycle year does not prove why someone gave.

FEC individual contribution files record the contributor's city as entered on the itemized receipt. Spellings and suburb-versus-city choices can split a metro across multiple city pages. St Paul, MN here is the string that survived aggregation as ST PAUL in MN. 2008 is a presidential FEC cycle: a two-year window that includes a presidential general election. That calendar fact does not explain why St Paul, MN donors itemized $245,378. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

All-cycle St Paul, MN versus this window

The city aggregate for St Paul, MN is $39,406,084 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 $245,378 from 2008 and the $39,160,706 from every other cycle in the same city file. State-level MN campaign-finance pages still mix St Paul with every other city in MN.

The stored city is the City of Saint Paul in Ramsey County, Minnesota. Minneapolis, Bloomington, and Roseville are not rolled into ST PAUL. State MN stays on the citation so St Paul, MN is not merged with a same-named place in another state. $39,406,084 is the MN key only. For St Paul, MN, the city stack is $39,406,084 while this cycle is $245,378 (0.62%). Use the city hub for St Paul, MN without a year filter; use this tie for St Paul in 2008. Donor city is not recipient city: committees that received these gifts can file anywhere in the FEC system. ST PAUL is the stored FEC city string; Minneapolis is a different key.

What the 2008 presidential window holds for St Paul

Federal election cycles are two-year windows on FEC.gov. The 2008 cycle is the Commission's cycle tag on itemized receipts, not a calendar year of January gifts only. Inside that window, St Paul, MN donors itemized $245,378 on 252 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $974 per itemized gift. That mean is an arithmetic average of rows, not a typical donor and not a median. This page does not publish a median or a unique-donor count.

The national 2008 hub still includes every other city. State pages for MN still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates St Paul × 2008. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. Independent expenditures and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables. 252 rows against $245,378 produces a lower arithmetic mean near $974 than many suburb joins. That ratio is not a finding about typical residents. Medians and unique-donor counts are unpublished. This URL is the intersection only.

A 0.62% cut of the St Paul stack

0.62% of $39,406,084 is a slice of the city book, not a ranking against other cities. Put another way, about 0.62% of St Paul, MN's itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2008, and about 99.38% were not. Those percentages are $245,378 divided by $39,406,084 and $39,160,706 divided by $39,406,084. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (0.62%) and row volume (252 itemized gifts) are separate facts. This packet does not include a citywide row count across all cycles, so a row-share percentage is not computed. Do not treat 0.62% as St Paul's share of the 2008 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts. Ramsey County is a geography note for readers; it is not a Census population weight on $245,378.

What $245,378 does not measure

252 itemized contributions totaling $245,378 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 ST PAUL. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of St Paul versus other MN cities: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean gift size of about $974 uses only the two numbers in the join: $245,378 and 252 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 page does not break $245,378 out by occupation, industry, or recipient committee. City labels are filer-entered. A donor who typed ST PAUL is counted; a nearby suburb they typed instead is not recoded into St Paul.

Reading St Paul and 2008 together without mixing tables

This page does not rank St Paul against other cities and does not treat itemized giving as public opinion in MN. Two columns matched. Contributor city is not campaign city. A MN address does not mean the money supported a MN candidate. Amended reports can move either number. If the live St Paul, MN hub or the live 2008 cycle hub disagrees with this prose, the newer FEC extract controls.

Unitemized gifts, independent expenditures, and non-individual sources are omitted. See St Paul, MN, the 2008 election cycle, Minnesota 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 St Paul, MN donors give in the 2008 election cycle?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing St Paul, MN total $245,378 in the 2008 cycle, across 252 contribution records. The same city label totals $39,406,084 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2008 is 0.62% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is the St Paul, MN city total only for 2008?

No. The city aggregate of $39,406,084 covers every cycle in the table for ST PAUL. The 2008 filter is $245,378 from 252 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $39,160,706. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2008 slice.

Did St Paul, MN 2008 donations stay in MN?

Not necessarily. Donor city is St Paul, MN; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $245,378 by office, state of the committee, or party. A MN city code is an address field on the individual receipt, not a map of MN races.

How many St Paul, MN contributions were itemized in 2008?

252 itemized contribution records sum to $245,378. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $974 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.