Buffalo, NY political money — 2012 cycle

What the Buffalo × 2012 join measures

The overlap of contributor city BUFFALO with state NY and election cycle 2012 is $196,619 across 108 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $31,737,469. 2012 therefore accounts for 0.62% of Buffalo, NY itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $31,540,850 (99.4%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of Buffalo, NY. That hub mixes 2012 with every other even-year window filed under BUFFALO. It is also not a restatement of the 2012 election cycle hub, which mixes Buffalo, NY with every other donor city in the United States. The 108 rows and $196,619 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 to New York.

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. 2012 is a presidential FEC cycle: a two-year window that includes a presidential general election. That calendar fact does not explain why Buffalo, NY donors itemized $196,619. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

Buffalo, NY across every cycle

The city aggregate for Buffalo, NY is $31,737,469 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 $196,619 from 2012 and the $31,540,850 from every other cycle in the same city file. New York campaign-finance pages still mix Buffalo with every other city in New York.

The stored city is Buffalo in western New York. Amherst, Cheektowaga, and New York City boroughs are not rolled into BUFFALO. Erie County as a whole is not the city string. State NY stays on the citation. $31,737,469 is the NY key only. A large city total does not mean 2012 was large, and a small city total does not mean 2012 was small. For Buffalo, NY, the city stack is $31,737,469 while this cycle is $196,619 (0.62%). Use the city hub to see Buffalo, NY without a year filter, and use this tie page when the question is specifically Buffalo in 2012. Donor city is not the same as recipient city: committees that received these gifts can be anywhere in the FEC system.

The 2012 presidential window on FEC.gov

Federal election cycles are two-year windows on FEC.gov. The 2012 cycle is the Commission's cycle tag on itemized receipts, not a calendar year of January gifts only. Inside that window, Buffalo, NY donors itemized $196,619 on 108 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $1,821 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 2012 hub still includes every other city. State pages for New York still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates Buffalo × 2012. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. Independent expenditures and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables. 108 itemized rows is a moderate absolute count of receipts for this join. Adjacent pages for Buffalo, NY, the 2012 election cycle, and New York campaign finance keep those broader cuts; this URL is the intersection only.

Share of the Buffalo city stack

0.62% of $31,737,469 is a minority slice of the city stack. The city hub is mostly other even-year windows, totaling $31,540,850. Put another way, about 0.62% of Buffalo, NY's itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2012, and about 99.4% were not. Those percentages are $196,619 divided by $31,737,469 and $31,540,850 divided by $31,737,469. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (0.62%) and row volume (108 itemized gifts) are separate facts. A thin dollar share can sit next to a large row count, or the reverse; both numbers describe this pair only. 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 Buffalo's share of the 2012 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts.

Rows, means, and missing fields

108 itemized contributions totaling $196,619 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 BUFFALO. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of Buffalo versus other New York cities: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean gift size of about $1,821 uses only the two numbers in the join: $196,619 and 108 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 $196,619 out by occupation, industry, or recipient committee. City labels are filer-entered. A donor who typed BUFFALO is counted; a donor who typed a neighborhood, a firm city, or a nearby suburb is not recoded into Buffalo.

What this tie page is not

This page does not rank Buffalo against other cities, does not call 2012 a wave, and does not treat itemized giving as a proxy for public opinion in New York. Two columns matched. The city of the contributor is not the city of the campaign. A NY address on an individual receipt does not mean the money supported a New York candidate. Amended reports can move either number.

Unitemized gifts, independent expenditures, and non-individual sources are omitted. See Buffalo, NY, the 2012 election cycle, New York 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 Buffalo, NY donors give in the 2012 election cycle?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Buffalo, NY total $196,619 in the 2012 cycle, across 108 contribution records. The same city label totals $31,737,469 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2012 is 0.62% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is the Buffalo, NY city total only for 2012?

No. The city aggregate of $31,737,469 covers every cycle in the table for BUFFALO. The 2012 filter is $196,619 from 108 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $31,540,850. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2012 slice.

Did Buffalo, NY 2012 donations stay in New York?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Buffalo, NY; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $196,619 by office, state of the committee, or party. A NY city code is an address field on the individual receipt, not a map of New York races.

How many Buffalo, NY contributions were itemized in 2012?

108 itemized contribution records sum to $196,619. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $1,821 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.