Arlington, VA political money — 2008 cycle

How Arlington, VA meets the 2008 election cycle

$127,054 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city ARLINGTON with state VA, and election cycle 2008. The match is $127,054 across 139 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $801,865,991. 2008 therefore accounts for 0.02% of Arlington, VA itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $801,738,937 (100.0%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of Arlington, VA. That hub mixes 2008 with every other even-year window filed under ARLINGTON. It is also not a restatement of the 2008 election cycle hub, which mixes Arlington, VA with every other donor city. The 139 rows and $127,054 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 Arlington, VA side of the join

The city aggregate for Arlington, VA is $801,865,991 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 $127,054 from 2008 and the $801,738,937 from every other cycle in the same city file. Virginia campaign-finance pages still mix Arlington with every other city in VA.

The stored city is Arlington in Arlington County, Virginia. Arlington, Texas is a different state key; keep VA. Alexandria, McLean, and Washington, DC are other contributor-city strings even when the commute is shared. $801,865,991 is the VA key only. A large city total does not mean 2008 was large, and a small city total does not mean 2008 was small. For Arlington, VA, the city stack is $801,865,991 while this cycle is $127,054 (0.02%). 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 Virginia filers in Arlington

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. 2008 is a presidential election cycle. That calendar label does not explain $127,054. Inside that window, Arlington, VA donors itemized $127,054 on 139 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $914 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 thirty-nine receipts totaling $127,054 against an $801,865,991 Arlington book is about 0.02% of city dollars. That is a thin 2008 slice of one of the largest city books in this harvest. A huge parent and a modest cycle cut can coexist; this page does not rank Arlington. The national 2008 hub still includes every other city. State pages for Virginia still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates Arlington × 2008. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted.

A small 2008 cut of Arlington’s large city book

0.02% of $801,865,991 is a small slice of the published city book. The city hub is mostly other even-year windows, totaling $801,738,937. Put another way, about 0.02% of Arlington, VA itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2008, and about 100.0% were not. Those percentages are $127,054 divided by $801,865,991 and $801,738,937 divided by $801,865,991. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (0.02%) and row volume (139 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 0.02% as Arlington’s share of the 2008 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts. Independent expenditures and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables.

What $127,054 does not measure

139 itemized contributions totaling $127,054 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 ARLINGTON. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of Arlington versus other Virginia cities: this join has one geography and one cycle. Mean gift size of about $914 uses only $127,054 and 139 rows.

$127,054 is itemized federal individual contributions with contributor city ARLINGTON. Unitemized gifts below the itemization threshold sit outside it. State-office campaigns in Virginia file under state law and sit outside it. A candidate who lives in Arlington 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 Arlington and 2008 without mixing tables

This page does not rank Arlington against other cities, does not call 2008 a wave, and does not treat itemized giving as a proxy for public opinion in Virginia. Two columns matched. A VA address on an individual receipt does not mean the money supported a Virginia candidate. Amended reports can move either number. If the live Arlington, VA hub or the live 2008 cycle hub disagrees with this prose, the newer FEC extract controls.

See Arlington, VA, the 2008 election cycle, Virginia 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/va-arlington-2008-donations/.

Questions

How much did Arlington, VA donors itemize in 2008?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Arlington, VA total $127,054 in the 2008 cycle, across 139 contribution records. The same city label totals $801,865,991 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2008 is 0.02% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is the Arlington, VA city total only for 2008?

No. The city aggregate of $801,865,991 covers every cycle in the table for ARLINGTON. The 2008 filter is $127,054 from 139 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $801,738,937. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2008 slice.

Did Arlington, VA 2008 donations stay in Virginia?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Arlington, VA; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $127,054 by office, state of the committee, or party. A VA city code is an address field on the individual receipt, not a map of Virginia races.

How many Arlington, VA contributions were itemized in 2008?

139 itemized contribution records sum to $127,054. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $914 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.