Princeton, NJ political money — 2008 cycle

Joining donor city Princeton with cycle 2008

The join keeps donor city Princeton in New Jersey and election cycle 2008. The match is $488,704 across 236 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $75,711,028. 2008 therefore accounts for 0.65% of Princeton, NJ itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $75,222,324 (99.4%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of Princeton, NJ. That hub mixes 2008 with every other even-year window filed under PRINCETON. It is also not a restatement of the 2008 election cycle hub, which mixes Princeton, NJ with every other donor city in the United States. The 236 rows and $488,704 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. Princeton, NJ here is the string that survived aggregation as PRINCETON in NJ. 2008 is a presidential FEC cycle: a two-year window that includes a presidential general election. This page does not split the $488,704 by office, party, or candidate. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

Princeton, NJ across every cycle in the aggregate

The city aggregate for Princeton, NJ is $75,711,028 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 $488,704 from 2008 and the $75,222,324 from every other cycle in the same city file. New Jersey campaign-finance pages still mix Princeton 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 Princeton, NJ, the city stack is $75,711,028 while this cycle is $488,704 (0.65%). Use the city hub to see Princeton, NJ without a year filter, and use this tie page when the question is specifically Princeton in 2008. Donor city is not the same as recipient city: committees that received these gifts can be anywhere in the FEC system.

2008 as a two-year FEC window

The 2008 election cycle is a two-year FEC reporting window labeled by its even year. Inside that window, Princeton, NJ donors itemized $488,704 on 236 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $2,071 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 Princeton × 2008. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. Independent expenditures, party coordinated spends, and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables. 236 itemized contribution rows is a modest file. A few large receipts can still move the mean without this page listing them. Adjacent pages for Princeton, NJ, 2008 election cycle, and New Jersey campaign finance keep those broader cuts; this URL is the intersection only.

Share of $75,711,028 sitting in 2008

0.65% of $75,711,028 is a modest slice. Princeton, NJ remains a multi-cycle file; 2008 is one filter on that stack. Put another way, about 0.65% of Princeton, NJ's itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2008, and about 99.4% were not. Those percentages are $488,704 divided by $75,711,028 and $75,222,324 divided by $75,711,028. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (0.65%) and row volume (236 itemized gifts) are separate facts. A modest slice of citywide dollars can sit next to a modest 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 0.65% as Princeton's share of the 2008 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts.

236 contribution records from one city-cycle pair

236 itemized contributions totaling $488,704 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 PRINCETON. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of Princeton versus other New Jersey cities: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean gift size of about $2,071 uses only the two numbers in the join: $488,704 and 236 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 $488,704 out by occupation, industry, or recipient committee.

Limits of a city-by-cycle table

This page does not rank Princeton 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 Princeton, 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 Princeton, NJ donors give in the 2008 election cycle?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Princeton, NJ total $488,704 in the 2008 cycle, across 236 contribution records. The same city label totals $75,711,028 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2008 is 0.65% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is the Princeton, NJ city total only for 2008?

No. The city aggregate of $75,711,028 covers every cycle in the table for PRINCETON. The 2008 filter is $488,704 from 236 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $75,222,324. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2008 slice.

Did Princeton, NJ 2008 donations stay in New Jersey?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Princeton, NJ; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $488,704 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 Princeton, NJ contributions were itemized in 2008?

236 itemized contribution records sum to $488,704. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $2,071 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.