Montclair, NJ political money — 2008 cycle

Two FEC fields: Montclair and 2008

The join keeps donor city Montclair in New Jersey and election cycle 2008. The match is $1,453,650 across 23 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $26,718,106. 2008 therefore accounts for 5.4% of Montclair, NJ itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $25,264,456 (94.6%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of Montclair, NJ. That hub mixes 2008 with every other even-year window filed under MONTCLAIR. It is also not a restatement of the 2008 election cycle hub, which mixes Montclair, NJ with every other donor city in the United States. The 23 rows and $1,453,650 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.

FEC individual contribution files record the contributor's city as entered on the itemized receipt. Spellings, abbreviations, and suburb-versus-city choices can split a metro across multiple city pages. Montclair, NJ here is the string that survived aggregation as MONTCLAIR in NJ. 2008 is a presidential FEC cycle: a two-year window that includes a presidential general election. This page does not split the $1,453,650 by office, party, or candidate. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

$26,718,106 filed from Montclair, NJ

The city aggregate for Montclair, NJ is $26,718,106 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 $1,453,650 from 2008 and the $25,264,456 from every other cycle in the same city file. New Jersey campaign-finance pages still mix Montclair with every other city in New Jersey.

A large city total does not mean 2008 was large, and a small city total does not mean 2008 was small. For Montclair, NJ, the city stack is $26,718,106 while this cycle is $1,453,650 (5.4%). Use the city hub to see Montclair, NJ without a year filter, and use this tie page when the question is specifically Montclair in 2008. Donor city is not the same as recipient city: committees that received these gifts can be anywhere in the FEC system.

$1,453,650 inside the 2008 window

The 2008 election cycle is a two-year FEC reporting window labeled by its even year. Inside that window, Montclair, NJ donors itemized $1,453,650 on 23 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $63,202 per itemized gift. That mean is an arithmetic average of rows, not a typical donor and not a median. A few large receipts can lift the mean while most rows sit far below it. This page does not publish a median or a unique-donor count.

The national 2008 hub still includes every other city. State pages for New Jersey still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates Montclair × 2008. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. Independent expenditures, party coordinated spends, and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables. 23 itemized rows is a very sparse file. With that few records, $1,453,650 should be read as a small set of itemized transactions, not a citywide turnout measure. Adjacent pages for Montclair, NJ, 2008 election cycle, and New Jersey campaign finance keep those broader cuts; this URL is the intersection only.

Where 2008 sits in the city timeline

5.4% of $26,718,106 is a notable slice. Other cycles still hold $25,264,456 (94.6%) of the city total. Put another way, about 5.4% of Montclair, NJ's itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2008, and about 94.6% were not. Those percentages are $1,453,650 divided by $26,718,106 and $25,264,456 divided by $26,718,106. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (5.4%) and row volume (23 itemized gifts) are separate facts. A notable slice of citywide dollars can sit next to a very sparse contribution file; those labels describe this pair, not other cities. This packet does not include a citywide row count across all cycles, so a row-share percentage is not computed. Do not treat 5.4% as Montclair's share of the 2008 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts.

A very sparse itemized file for this pair

23 itemized contributions totaling $1,453,650 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 MONTCLAIR. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of Montclair versus other New Jersey cities: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean gift size of about $63,202 uses only the two numbers in the join: $1,453,650 and 23 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 $1,453,650 out by occupation, industry, or recipient committee.

Public records without motive

This page does not rank Montclair against other cities, does not call 2008 a wave, and does not treat itemized giving as a proxy for public opinion in New Jersey. Two columns matched. The city of the contributor is not the city of the campaign. A NJ address on an individual receipt does not mean the money supported a New Jersey candidate.

Unitemized gifts, independent expenditures, and non-individual sources are omitted. See Montclair, NJ, the 2008 election cycle, New Jersey 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 Montclair, NJ donors give in the 2008 election cycle?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Montclair, NJ total $1,453,650 in the 2008 cycle, across 23 contribution records. The same city label totals $26,718,106 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2008 is 5.4% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is the Montclair, NJ city total only for 2008?

No. The city aggregate of $26,718,106 covers every cycle in the table for MONTCLAIR. The 2008 filter is $1,453,650 from 23 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $25,264,456. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2008 slice.

Did Montclair, NJ 2008 donations stay in New Jersey?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Montclair, NJ; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $1,453,650 by office, state of the committee, or party. A NJ city code is an address field on the individual receipt, not a map of New Jersey races.

How many Montclair, NJ contributions were itemized in 2008?

23 itemized contribution records sum to $1,453,650. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $63,202 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.