Memphis, TN political money — 2008 cycle

How Memphis, TN meets the 2008 election cycle

$296,384 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city MEMPHIS with state TN, and election cycle 2008. The match is $296,384 across 230 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $81,045,423. 2008 therefore accounts for 0.37% of Memphis, TN itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $80,749,039 (99.6%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of Memphis, TN. That hub mixes 2008 with every other even-year window filed under MEMPHIS. It is also not a restatement of the 2008 election cycle hub, which mixes Memphis, TN with every other donor city in the United States. The 230 rows and $296,384 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.

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. Memphis, TN here is the string that survived aggregation as MEMPHIS in TN. 2008 is a presidential FEC cycle: a two-year window that includes a presidential general election. That calendar fact does not explain why Memphis, TN donors itemized $296,384. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

The Memphis, TN side of the join

The city aggregate for Memphis, TN is $81,045,423 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 $296,384 from 2008 and the $80,749,039 from every other cycle in the same city file. Tennessee campaign-finance pages still mix Memphis with every other city in Tennessee.

The stored city sits in Shelby County, Tennessee, on the Mississippi River. West Memphis, Arkansas is a different FEC key (state AR). Germantown and Bartlett are not rolled into MEMPHIS. State TN stays on the citation. $81,045,423 is the TN key only. A large city total does not mean 2008 was large, and a small city total does not mean 2008 was small. For Memphis, TN, the city stack is $81,045,423 while this cycle is $296,384 (0.37%). Use the city hub to see Memphis, TN without a year filter, and use this tie page when the question is specifically Memphis in 2008. Donor city is not the same as recipient city: committees that received these gifts can be anywhere in the FEC system.

The 2008 cycle side for Tennessee filers in Memphis

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, Memphis, TN donors itemized $296,384 on 230 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $1,289 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 Tennessee still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates Memphis × 2008. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. Independent expenditures and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables. 230 itemized rows is a moderate file. Adjacent pages for Memphis, TN, 2008 election cycle, and Tennessee campaign finance keep those broader cuts; this URL is the intersection only.

2008 versus the rest of Memphis

0.37% of $81,045,423 is a small slice. The city hub is mostly other even-year windows, totaling $80,749,039. Put another way, about 0.37% of Memphis, TN's itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2008, and about 99.6% were not. Those percentages are $296,384 divided by $81,045,423 and $80,749,039 divided by $81,045,423. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (0.37%) and row volume (230 itemized gifts) are separate facts. A small slice of citywide dollars can sit next to a moderate file; those labels describe this pair, not other cities. This packet does not include a citywide row count across all cycles, so a row-share percentage is not computed. Do not treat 0.37% as Memphis's share of the 2008 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts.

Counts, dollars, and what they omit

230 itemized contributions totaling $296,384 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 MEMPHIS. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of Memphis versus other Tennessee cities: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean gift size of about $1,289 uses only the two numbers in the join: $296,384 and 230 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 $296,384 out by occupation, industry, or recipient committee. City labels are filer-entered. A donor who typed MEMPHIS is counted; a donor who typed a neighborhood, a firm city, or a nearby suburb is not recoded into Memphis.

Caveats on a geographic-cycle join

This page does not rank Memphis against other cities, does not call 2008 a wave, and does not treat itemized giving as a proxy for public opinion in Tennessee. Two columns matched. The city of the contributor is not the city of the campaign. A TN address on an individual receipt does not mean the money supported a Tennessee candidate. Amended reports can move either number. If the live Memphis, TN 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 Memphis, TN, the 2008 election cycle, Tennessee 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 Memphis, TN donors give in the 2008 election cycle?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Memphis, TN total $296,384 in the 2008 cycle, across 230 contribution records. The same city label totals $81,045,423 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2008 is 0.37% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is the Memphis, TN city total only for 2008?

No. The city aggregate of $81,045,423 covers every cycle in the table for MEMPHIS. The 2008 filter is $296,384 from 230 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $80,749,039. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2008 slice.

Did Memphis, TN 2008 donations stay in Tennessee?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Memphis, TN; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $296,384 by office, state of the committee, or party. A TN city code is an address field on the individual receipt, not a map of Tennessee races.

How many Memphis, TN contributions were itemized in 2008?

230 itemized contribution records sum to $296,384. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $1,289 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.