McLean, VA political money in the 2008 election cycle

How McLean meets the 2008 election cycle

$596,481 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city MCLEAN with state VA, and election cycle 2008. LobbyVault stores that join so a reader can open the McLean, VA city hub and the 2008 election cycle hub without treating either page as a substitute for this one. The city hub answers “how much itemized money has this city string produced across cycles.” The cycle hub answers “how much itemized money did that two-year federal window produce nationally.” This page answers only the intersection: McLean, VA in 2008.

318 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 MCLEAN is in the same city field as a household street. Arithmetic mean per line is about $1,876 ($596,481 ÷ 318). That mean is division, not a typical resident and not a median.

2008 is a presidential election cycle. That calendar label does not explain $596,481. This packet does not carry party splits, committee names, or occupation mix for the join. Cite the two packet dollars — $596,481 for the 2008 slice and $117.4 million for the McLean, VA book — and stop before assigning motive.

The McLean, VA side of the join

Across cycles in this extract, contributor city MCLEAN in Virginia totals $117.4 million. $596,481 is 0.5% of that city book. A small share does not mean 2008 was quiet in McLean; it means later or earlier cycles in the same city string can dwarf a single window. The live McLean, VA table is the place to compare other years. This snapshot lists one cycle.

The stored city sits in Fairfax County, Virginia. Arlington and Vienna are other contributor-city strings. State VA stays on the citation so McLean is not merged with a same-named place in another state. A repeated city name under another state code is a different FEC key. $117.4 million is the VA key only.

The 2008 cycle side for Virginia filers in McLean

Federal election cycles are two-year windows on FEC.gov. The 2008 cycle is not a calendar year of January gifts only; it is the Commission’s cycle tag on itemized receipts. 318 McLean, VA lines in that window produced $596,481. National 2008 activity — every city — lives on the 2008 election cycle hub, not here.

Virginia campaign-finance pages roll up the state, including cities that are not McLean. Do not add $596,481 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 $596,481 into spending by McLean candidates.

What $596,481 does not measure

$596,481 is itemized federal individual contributions with contributor city MCLEAN. Unitemized gifts below the itemization threshold sit outside it. State-office campaigns in Virginia file under state law and sit outside it. Independent-expenditure totals are a different FEC table. A candidate who lives in McLean can raise money from other cities; those gifts are not this join.

City labels are filer-entered. A donor who typed MCLEAN is counted; a donor who typed a neighborhood, a firm city, or a nearby suburb is not recoded into McLean. LobbyVault does not rewrite the city field into a Census place or a residency test. Treat 318 as lines that stored this string in 2008.

Reading McLean and 2008 together without mixing tables

Correlation is not causation. $596,481 beside $117.4 million does not mean 2008 “caused” the city book or that McLean “drove” the 2008 cycle. The join is a filter: city string plus cycle tag. Amended reports can move either number. If the live McLean, VA hub or the live 2008 cycle hub disagrees with this prose, the newer FEC extract controls.

Internal links on this page go to McLean, VA, the 2008 election cycle, Virginia campaign finance, and All FEC ties. Use those four doors. Do not paste $596,481 into a USAspending award story; FEC receipts and federal obligations are different statutes. This packet has no award dollars.

Questions

How much did McLean, VA donors give in 2008?

Itemized FEC individual contributions listing contributor city MCLEAN and cycle 2008 total $596,481 across 318 receipts in this LobbyVault extract. That is the city-cycle join, not the all-cycle McLean, VA book of $117.4 million. Unitemized gifts and Virginia state-office filings sit outside both figures.

Is $596,481 all of McLean’s federal political money?

No. $117.4 million is the all-cycle itemized book for contributor city MCLEAN in VA. The 2008 slice is $596,481, 0.5% of that book. Other cycles in the same city string are on the McLean, VA hub. 318 is a 2008 receipt count, not a unique-donor count.

Does the 2008 McLean total count only residents?

No. The city is the contributor-city value on the FEC itemization. Filers typed MCLEAN with state VA. Office addresses and joint-fundraising mail that list McLean can sit in $596,481 when that is the stored string. LobbyVault does not recode the field into a residential-only book.

Where do the McLean, VA 2008 numbers come from?

FEC.gov itemized contribution aggregates, indexed on LobbyVault: $596,481 and 318 lines for MCLEAN in cycle 2008, and $117.4 million for the city string across cycles. Original reports remain on FEC.gov. If a later extract disagrees with this snapshot, the Commission’s filing controls.