Columbus, OH political money in the 2012 election cycle

How Columbus meets the 2012 election cycle

$254,890 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city COLUMBUS with state OH, and election cycle 2012. LobbyVault stores that join so a reader can open the Columbus, OH city hub and the 2012 election cycle hub without treating either page as a substitute for this one. The city hub answers how much itemized money this city string has produced across cycles. The cycle hub answers how much itemized money that two-year federal window produced nationally. This page answers only the intersection: Columbus, OH in 2012.

137 is a receipt count for that intersection, not a unique-donor census. A person who gave twice is two lines. A PAC or joint-fundraising address that stored COLUMBUS is in the same city field as a household street. Arithmetic mean per line is about $1,861 ($254,890 ÷ 137). That mean is division, not a typical resident and not a median.

2012 is a presidential election cycle. That calendar label does not explain $254,890. This packet does not carry party splits, committee names, or occupation mix for the join. Cite the two packet dollars — $254,890 for the 2012 slice and $135.1 million for the Columbus, OH book — and stop before assigning motive.

The Columbus, OH side of the join

Across cycles in this extract, contributor city COLUMBUS in Ohio totals $135.1 million ($135,072,444). $254,890 is 0.2% of that city book. A small share does not mean 2012 was quiet in Columbus; it means later or earlier cycles in the same city string can dwarf a single window. The remaining $134,817,554 in the city book sits in other even-year tags. The live Columbus, OH table is the place to compare other years. This snapshot lists one cycle.

The stored city sits in Franklin County, Ohio. Dublin and Westerville are separate FEC city keys and are not rolled into COLUMBUS. State OH stays on the citation so Columbus is not merged with a same-named place in another state. A repeated city name under another state code is a different FEC key. $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 2012 cycle side for Ohio filers in Columbus

Federal election cycles are two-year windows on FEC.gov. The 2012 cycle is not a calendar year of January gifts only; it is the Commission's cycle tag on itemized receipts. 137 Columbus, OH lines in that window produced $254,890. National 2012 activity — every city — lives on the 2012 election cycle hub, not here. A presidential label marks the even-year window that includes a presidential general election, not a finding about turnout in Columbus.

Ohio campaign-finance pages roll up the state, including cities that are not Columbus. Do not add $254,890 to a state total from that hub; the state page already contains this city when the same extract is used. All FEC ties is the directory of other city-cycle and city-industry joins. None of those pages converts $254,890 into spending by Columbus candidates. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted from both $254,890 and the $135.1 million city book.

What $254,890 does not measure

$254,890 is itemized federal individual contributions with contributor city COLUMBUS. Unitemized gifts below the itemization threshold sit outside it. State-office campaigns in Ohio file under state law and sit outside it. Independent-expenditure totals are a different FEC table. A candidate who lives in Columbus can raise money from other cities; those gifts are not this join. PAC transfers and committee-to-committee activity are other files.

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. LobbyVault does not rewrite the city field into a Census place or a residency test. Treat 137 as lines that stored this string in 2012. This packet does not include a citywide row count across all cycles, so a row-share percentage is not computed.

Reading Columbus and 2012 together without mixing tables

Correlation is not causation. $254,890 beside $135.1 million does not mean 2012 caused the city book or that Columbus drove the 2012 cycle. The join is a filter: city string plus cycle tag. Amended reports can move either number. If the live Columbus, OH hub or the live 2012 cycle hub disagrees with this prose, the newer FEC extract controls. This snapshot is not a third disclosure system.

Internal links on this page go to Columbus, OH, the 2012 election cycle, Ohio campaign finance, and All FEC ties. Use those four doors. Do not paste $254,890 into a USAspending award story; FEC receipts and federal obligations are different statutes. This packet has no award dollars, and itemized giving is not a proxy for public opinion in Ohio.

A 0.2% cut of the Columbus stack

0.2% of $135.1 million is a slice, not a ranking. Put another way, $254,890 of the $135,072,444 city stack was tagged 2012, and $134,817,554 was tagged other cycles. Those percentages are $254,890 divided by $135,072,444 and $134,817,554 divided by $135,072,444. They are not shares of Ohio totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters. Dollar share (0.2%) and row volume (137 itemized gifts) are separate facts.

Do not treat 0.2% as Columbus's share of the 2012 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts. Adjacent midterm windows for the same city string are other joins. This URL isolates Columbus × 2012 only: $254,890, 137 receipts, mean about $1,861. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

Questions

How much did Columbus, OH donors give in 2012?

Itemized FEC individual contributions listing contributor city COLUMBUS and cycle 2012 total $254,890 across 137 receipts in this LobbyVault extract. That is the city-cycle join, not the all-cycle Columbus, OH book of $135.1 million. Unitemized gifts and Ohio state-office filings sit outside both figures.

Is $254,890 all of Columbus's federal political money?

No. $135.1 million ($135,072,444) is the all-cycle itemized book for contributor city COLUMBUS in OH. The 2012 slice is $254,890, 0.2% of that book. Other cycles hold $134,817,554. 137 is a 2012 receipt count, not a unique-donor count.

Did Columbus, OH 2012 donations stay in Ohio?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Columbus, OH; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $254,890 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 2012?

137 itemized contribution records sum to $254,890. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $1,861 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.