Columbia, SC political money — 2012 cycle

How Columbia, SC meets the 2012 election cycle

$125,894 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city COLUMBIA with state SC, and election cycle 2012. The match is $125,894 across 128 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $44,314,231. 2012 therefore accounts for 0.28% of Columbia, SC itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $44,188,337 (99.7%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of Columbia, SC. That hub mixes 2012 with every other even-year window filed under COLUMBIA. It is also not a restatement of the 2012 election cycle hub, which mixes Columbia, SC with every other donor city. The 128 rows and $125,894 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 Columbia, SC side of the join

The city aggregate for Columbia, SC is $44,314,231 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 $125,894 from 2012 and the $44,188,337 from every other cycle in the same city file. South Carolina campaign-finance pages still mix Columbia with every other city in SC.

The stored city is Columbia in Richland County, South Carolina. Columbia, Missouri and Washington, DC are other geographies. Greenville and Charleston are other South Carolina city keys. Keep SC on every citation. $44,314,231 is the SC key only. A large city total does not mean 2012 was large, and a small city total does not mean 2012 was small. For Columbia, SC, the city stack is $44,314,231 while this cycle is $125,894 (0.28%). Donor city is not the same as recipient city: committees that received these gifts can be anywhere in the FEC system.

The 2012 cycle side for South Carolina filers in Columbia

Federal election cycles are two-year windows on FEC.gov. The 2012 cycle is the Commission’s cycle tag on itemized receipts, not a calendar year of January gifts only. 2012 is a presidential election cycle. That calendar label does not explain $125,894. Inside that window, Columbia, SC donors itemized $125,894 on 128 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $984 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.

One hundred twenty-eight receipts totaling $125,894 against a $44,314,231 Columbia book is about 0.28% of city dollars. One hundred twenty-eight 2012 presidential-year lines is a mid-size file. This page does not split the total by South Carolina office. The national 2012 hub still includes every other city. State pages for South Carolina still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates Columbia × 2012. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted.

2012 as a cut of Columbia’s published city book

0.28% of $44,314,231 is a small slice of the published city book. The city hub is mostly other even-year windows, totaling $44,188,337. Put another way, about 0.28% of Columbia, SC itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2012, and about 99.7% were not. Those percentages are $125,894 divided by $44,314,231 and $44,188,337 divided by $44,314,231. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (0.28%) and row volume (128 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 0.28% as Columbia’s share of the 2012 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts. Independent expenditures and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables.

What $125,894 does not measure

128 itemized contributions totaling $125,894 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 COLUMBIA. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of Columbia versus other South Carolina cities: this join has one geography and one cycle. Mean gift size of about $984 uses only $125,894 and 128 rows.

$125,894 is itemized federal individual contributions with contributor city COLUMBIA. Unitemized gifts below the itemization threshold sit outside it. State-office campaigns in South Carolina file under state law and sit outside it. A candidate who lives in Columbia can raise money from other cities; those gifts are not this join. City labels are filer-entered. LobbyVault does not rewrite the city field into a Census place.

Reading Columbia and 2012 without mixing tables

This page does not rank Columbia against other cities, does not call 2012 a wave, and does not treat itemized giving as a proxy for public opinion in South Carolina. Two columns matched. A SC address on an individual receipt does not mean the money supported a South Carolina candidate. Amended reports can move either number. If the live Columbia, SC hub or the live 2012 cycle hub disagrees with this prose, the newer FEC extract controls.

See Columbia, SC, the 2012 election cycle, South Carolina 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. Canonical path is /ties/sc-columbia-2012-donations/.

Questions

How much did Columbia, SC donors itemize in 2012?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Columbia, SC total $125,894 in the 2012 cycle, across 128 contribution records. The same city label totals $44,314,231 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2012 is 0.28% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is the Columbia, SC city total only for 2012?

No. The city aggregate of $44,314,231 covers every cycle in the table for COLUMBIA. The 2012 filter is $125,894 from 128 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $44,188,337. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2012 slice.

Did Columbia, SC 2012 donations stay in South Carolina?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Columbia, SC; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $125,894 by office, state of the committee, or party. A SC city code is an address field on the individual receipt, not a map of South Carolina races.

How many Columbia, SC contributions were itemized in 2012?

128 itemized contribution records sum to $125,894. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $984 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.