Cleveland, OH political money — 2008 cycle

How Cleveland, OH meets the 2008 election cycle

$434,773 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city CLEVELAND with state OH, and election cycle 2008. The match is $434,773 across 428 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $104,708,861. 2008 therefore accounts for 0.42% of Cleveland, OH itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $104,274,088 (99.58%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of Cleveland, OH. That hub mixes 2008 with every other even-year window filed under CLEVELAND. It is also not a restatement of the 2008 election cycle hub, which mixes Cleveland, OH with every other donor city in the United States. The 428 rows and $434,773 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. Cleveland, OH here is the string that survived aggregation as CLEVELAND 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 Cleveland, OH donors itemized $434,773. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

The Cleveland, OH side of the join

The city aggregate for Cleveland, OH is $104,708,861 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 $434,773 from 2008 and the $104,274,088 from every other cycle in the same city file. State-level OH campaign-finance pages still mix Cleveland with every other city in OH.

The stored city is the City of Cleveland in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Akron, Lakewood, and Parma are not rolled into CLEVELAND. State OH stays on the citation so Cleveland, OH is not merged with a same-named place in another state. $104,708,861 is the OH key only. For Cleveland, OH, the city stack is $104,708,861 while this cycle is $434,773 (0.42%). Use the city hub for Cleveland, OH without a year filter; use this tie for Cleveland in 2008. Donor city is not recipient city: committees that received these gifts can file anywhere in the FEC system. CLEVELAND in OH is not merged with Cleveland, TN or other same-named keys.

The 2008 cycle side for OH filers in Cleveland

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, Cleveland, OH donors itemized $434,773 on 428 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $1,016 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 Cleveland × 2008. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. Independent expenditures and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables. 428 itemized contribution records produced $434,773. Mean about $1,016 per row is division, not a median and not a unique-donor average. This URL is the intersection only.

2008 versus the rest of Cleveland

0.42% of $104,708,861 is a slice of the city book, not a ranking against other cities. Put another way, about 0.42% of Cleveland, OH's itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2008, and about 99.58% were not. Those percentages are $434,773 divided by $104,708,861 and $104,274,088 divided by $104,708,861. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (0.42%) and row volume (428 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 0.42% as Cleveland's share of the 2008 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts. Cuyahoga County is a geography note for readers; it is not a Census population weight on $434,773.

Counts, dollars, and what they omit

428 itemized contributions totaling $434,773 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 CLEVELAND. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of Cleveland versus other OH cities: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean gift size of about $1,016 uses only the two numbers in the join: $434,773 and 428 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 $434,773 out by occupation, industry, or recipient committee. City labels are filer-entered. A donor who typed CLEVELAND is counted; a nearby suburb they typed instead is not recoded into Cleveland.

Caveats on a geographic-cycle join

This page does not rank Cleveland 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 Cleveland, 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 Cleveland, 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 Cleveland, OH donors give in the 2008 election cycle?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Cleveland, OH total $434,773 in the 2008 cycle, across 428 contribution records. The same city label totals $104,708,861 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2008 is 0.42% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is the Cleveland, OH city total only for 2008?

No. The city aggregate of $104,708,861 covers every cycle in the table for CLEVELAND. The 2008 filter is $434,773 from 428 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $104,274,088. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2008 slice.

Did Cleveland, OH 2008 donations stay in OH?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Cleveland, OH; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $434,773 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 Cleveland, OH contributions were itemized in 2008?

428 itemized contribution records sum to $434,773. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $1,016 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.