Philadelphia, PA political money — 2008 cycle

Philadelphia, PA × 2008: the join

$803,985 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city PHILADELPHIA with state PA, and election cycle 2008. The match is $803,985 across 689 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $322,266,398. 2008 therefore accounts for 0.25% of Philadelphia, PA itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $321,462,413 (99.75%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of Philadelphia, PA. That hub mixes 2008 with every other even-year window filed under PHILADELPHIA. It is also not a restatement of the 2008 election cycle hub, which mixes Philadelphia, PA with every other donor city in the United States. The 689 rows and $803,985 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. Philadelphia, PA here is the string that survived aggregation as PHILADELPHIA in PA. 2008 is a presidential FEC cycle: a two-year window that includes a presidential general election. That calendar fact does not explain why Philadelphia, PA donors itemized $803,985. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

All-cycle Philadelphia, PA versus this window

The city aggregate for Philadelphia, PA is $322,266,398 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 $803,985 from 2008 and the $321,462,413 from every other cycle in the same city file. State-level PA campaign-finance pages still mix Philadelphia with every other city in PA.

The stored city is the City of Philadelphia in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. Camden, King of Prussia, and Cherry Hill are not rolled into PHILADELPHIA. State PA stays on the citation so Philadelphia, PA is not merged with a same-named place in another state. $322,266,398 is the PA key only. For Philadelphia, PA, the city stack is $322,266,398 while this cycle is $803,985 (0.25%). Use the city hub for Philadelphia, PA without a year filter; use this tie for Philadelphia in 2008. Donor city is not recipient city: committees that received these gifts can file anywhere in the FEC system. New Jersey suburbs across the Delaware are other state-and-city keys.

What the 2008 presidential window holds for Philadelphia

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, Philadelphia, PA donors itemized $803,985 on 689 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $1,167 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 PA still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates Philadelphia × 2008. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. Independent expenditures and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables. 689 itemized contribution records produced $803,985. Mean about $1,167 per row is division, not a median and not a unique-donor average. This URL is the intersection only.

A 0.25% cut of the Philadelphia stack

0.25% of $322,266,398 is a slice of the city book, not a ranking against other cities. Put another way, about 0.25% of Philadelphia, PA's itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2008, and about 99.75% were not. Those percentages are $803,985 divided by $322,266,398 and $321,462,413 divided by $322,266,398. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (0.25%) and row volume (689 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 0.25% as Philadelphia's share of the 2008 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts. Philadelphia County is a geography note for readers; it is not a Census population weight on $803,985.

What $803,985 does not measure

689 itemized contributions totaling $803,985 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 PHILADELPHIA. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of Philadelphia versus other PA cities: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean gift size of about $1,167 uses only the two numbers in the join: $803,985 and 689 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 $803,985 out by occupation, industry, or recipient committee. City labels are filer-entered. A donor who typed PHILADELPHIA is counted; a nearby suburb they typed instead is not recoded into Philadelphia.

Reading Philadelphia and 2008 together without mixing tables

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

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Philadelphia, PA total $803,985 in the 2008 cycle, across 689 contribution records. The same city label totals $322,266,398 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2008 is 0.25% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is the Philadelphia, PA city total only for 2008?

No. The city aggregate of $322,266,398 covers every cycle in the table for PHILADELPHIA. The 2008 filter is $803,985 from 689 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $321,462,413. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2008 slice.

Did Philadelphia, PA 2008 donations stay in PA?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Philadelphia, PA; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $803,985 by office, state of the committee, or party. A PA city code is an address field on the individual receipt, not a map of PA races.

How many Philadelphia, PA contributions were itemized in 2008?

689 itemized contribution records sum to $803,985. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $1,167 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.