Columbus, OH political money — 2008 cycle

Columbus, OH × 2008 isolates the presidential tag

$170,947 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city COLUMBUS with state OH, and election cycle 2008. The match is $170,947 across 172 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $135,072,444. 2008 therefore accounts for 0.13% of Columbus, OH itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $134,901,497 (99.9%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of Columbus, OH. That hub mixes 2008 with every other even-year window filed under COLUMBUS. It is also not a restatement of the 2008 election cycle hub, which mixes Columbus, OH with every other donor city in the United States. The 172 rows and $170,947 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.

The packet facts stop at city, state, city-wide total, cycle, cycle total, and contribution count. No donor names appear here because none appear in the packet. No committee list appears here because none appears in the packet. This page is not an Ohio statewide campaign total, a capital-city ranking, or a Franklin County rollup. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

COLUMBUS as a Franklin County address field

Across cycles in this extract, contributor city COLUMBUS in Ohio totals $135.1 million ($135,072,444). $170,947 is 0.13% of that city book. A small share does not mean 2008 was quiet in Columbus; it means later or earlier cycles in the same city string can dwarf a single window. Do not add $170,947 to $135,072,444; the city book already contains this slice. Subtracting is valid: $135,072,444 − $170,947 = $134,901,497 in other cycles.

The stored city sits in Franklin County, Ohio. Upper Arlington, Bexley, and Grandview Heights are other FEC city strings, not rolled into COLUMBUS. State OH stays on the citation so Columbus is not merged with a same-named place in another state. $135.1 million is the OH key only. Donor city is not recipient city: committees that received these gifts can file from anywhere in the FEC system.

The 2008 two-year FEC window on Columbus lines

Federal election cycles are two-year windows on FEC.gov. 2008 is a presidential election cycle: a two-year FEC window that includes a presidential general election. Inside that window, Columbus, OH filers itemized $170,947 on 172 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $994 per itemized gift ($170,947 ÷ 172). That mean is an arithmetic average of rows, not a typical resident and not a median. This page does not publish a median or a unique-donor count.

a 172-row extract for 2008 — a mid-size receipt file for this city string, still Schedule A lines. The national 2008 hub still includes every other city. State pages for Ohio still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates Columbus × 2008. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. Independent expenditures and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables. Ohio campaign-finance pages already contain this city when the same extract is used; do not add $170,947 into the state hub a second time.

2008 as a thin slice of a large Columbus book

0.13% of $135,072,444 is the 2008 slice. Put another way, about 0.13% of Columbus, OH’s itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2008, and about 99.9% were not. Those percentages are $170,947 divided by $135,072,444 and $134,901,497 divided by $135,072,444. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (0.13%) and row volume (172 itemized gifts) are separate facts. This 2008 page is not the 2010 or 2012 Columbus joins. Each even-year tag is a separate city-cycle URL. This packet does not include a citywide row count across all cycles, so a row-share percentage is not computed. Do not treat 0.13% as Columbus’s share of the 2008 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts.

172 rows produce a mean, not a median

172 itemized contributions totaling $170,947 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 COLUMBUS. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of Columbus versus other Ohio cities: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean gift size of about $994 uses only the two numbers in the join: $170,947 and 172 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 $170,947 out by occupation, industry, or recipient committee. City labels are filer-entered. A donor who typed COLUMBUS is counted; a donor who typed a neighborhood, a firm city, or a nearby suburb is not recoded into Columbus.

Limits of a Columbus–2008 match

This page does not rank Columbus against other cities, does not call 2008 a wave, and does not treat itemized giving as a proxy for public opinion in Ohio. Two columns matched. A OH address on an individual receipt does not mean the money supported a Ohio candidate. Amended reports can move either number. If the live Columbus, OH hub or the live 2008 cycle hub disagrees with this prose, the newer FEC extract controls. Columbus, Georgia, would be a different state key. The packet state is OH.

Unitemized gifts, independent expenditures, and non-individual sources are omitted. See Columbus, OH, the 2008 election cycle, Ohio campaign finance, and All FEC ties for the adjacent tables. Dublin and Westerville remain other Franklin County strings. They are not absorbed into COLUMBUS. 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 Columbus, OH donors give in the 2008 election cycle?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Columbus, OH total $170,947 in the 2008 cycle, across 172 contribution records. The same city label totals $135,072,444 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2008 is 0.13% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is Columbus’s citywide FEC total only 2008 money?

No. The city aggregate of $135,072,444 covers every cycle in the table for COLUMBUS. The 2008 filter is $170,947 from 172 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $134,901,497. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2008 slice.

Did 2008 Columbus itemized gifts stay with Ohio candidates?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Columbus, OH; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $170,947 by office, state of the committee, or party. A OH city code is an address field on the individual receipt, not a map of Ohio races.

How many Columbus, OH contributions were itemized in 2008?

172 itemized contribution records sum to $170,947. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $994 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.