Cincinnati, OH political money — 2008 cycle

How Cincinnati, OH meets the 2008 election cycle

$611,598 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city CINCINNATI with state OH, and election cycle 2008. The match is $611,598 across 438 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $199,862,427. 2008 therefore accounts for 0.31% of Cincinnati, OH itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $199,250,829 (99.69%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of Cincinnati, OH. That hub mixes 2008 with every other even-year window filed under CINCINNATI. It is also not a restatement of the 2008 election cycle hub, which mixes Cincinnati, OH with every other donor city in the United States. The 438 rows and $611,598 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. Cincinnati, OH here is the string that survived aggregation as CINCINNATI in OH. 2008 is a presidential FEC cycle: a two-year window that includes a presidential general election. That calendar fact does not explain why Cincinnati, OH donors itemized $611,598. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

The Cincinnati, OH side of the join

The city aggregate for Cincinnati, OH is $199,862,427 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 $611,598 from 2008 and the $199,250,829 from every other cycle in the same city file. State-level OH campaign-finance pages still mix Cincinnati with every other city in OH.

The stored city is the City of Cincinnati in Hamilton County, Ohio. Covington, Newport, and Dayton are not rolled into CINCINNATI. State OH stays on the citation so Cincinnati, OH is not merged with a same-named place in another state. $199,862,427 is the OH key only. For Cincinnati, OH, the city stack is $199,862,427 while this cycle is $611,598 (0.31%). Use the city hub for Cincinnati, OH without a year filter; use this tie for Cincinnati in 2008. Donor city is not recipient city: committees that received these gifts can file anywhere in the FEC system. Kentucky cities across the Ohio River are other state keys.

The 2008 cycle side for OH filers in Cincinnati

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, Cincinnati, OH donors itemized $611,598 on 438 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $1,396 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 OH still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates Cincinnati × 2008. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. Independent expenditures and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables. 438 itemized contribution records produced $611,598. Mean about $1,396 per row is division, not a median and not a unique-donor average. This URL is the intersection only.

2008 versus the rest of Cincinnati

0.31% of $199,862,427 is a slice of the city book, not a ranking against other cities. Put another way, about 0.31% of Cincinnati, OH's itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2008, and about 99.69% were not. Those percentages are $611,598 divided by $199,862,427 and $199,250,829 divided by $199,862,427. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (0.31%) and row volume (438 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 0.31% as Cincinnati's share of the 2008 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts. Hamilton County is a geography note for readers; it is not a Census population weight on $611,598.

Counts, dollars, and what they omit

438 itemized contributions totaling $611,598 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 CINCINNATI. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of Cincinnati versus other OH cities: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean gift size of about $1,396 uses only the two numbers in the join: $611,598 and 438 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 $611,598 out by occupation, industry, or recipient committee. City labels are filer-entered. A donor who typed CINCINNATI is counted; a nearby suburb they typed instead is not recoded into Cincinnati.

Caveats on a geographic-cycle join

This page does not rank Cincinnati against other cities and does not treat itemized giving as public opinion in OH. Two columns matched. Contributor city is not campaign city. An OH address does not mean the money supported an OH candidate. Amended reports can move either number. If the live Cincinnati, OH 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 Cincinnati, OH, the 2008 election cycle, Ohio 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 Cincinnati, OH donors give in the 2008 election cycle?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Cincinnati, OH total $611,598 in the 2008 cycle, across 438 contribution records. The same city label totals $199,862,427 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2008 is 0.31% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is the Cincinnati, OH city total only for 2008?

No. The city aggregate of $199,862,427 covers every cycle in the table for CINCINNATI. The 2008 filter is $611,598 from 438 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $199,250,829. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2008 slice.

Did Cincinnati, OH 2008 donations stay in OH?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Cincinnati, OH; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $611,598 by office, state of the committee, or party. An OH city code is an address field on the individual receipt, not a map of OH races.

How many Cincinnati, OH contributions were itemized in 2008?

438 itemized contribution records sum to $611,598. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $1,396 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.