Seattle, WA political money — 2008 cycle

Joining donor city Seattle with cycle 2008

The join keeps donor city Seattle in Washington and election cycle 2008. The match is $417,525 across 347 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $327,126,798. 2008 therefore accounts for 0.13% of Seattle, WA itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $326,709,273 (99.9%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of Seattle, WA. That hub mixes 2008 with every other even-year window filed under SEATTLE. It is also not a restatement of the 2008 election cycle hub, which mixes Seattle, WA with every other donor city in the United States. The 347 rows and $417,525 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, abbreviations, and suburb-versus-city choices can split a metro across multiple city pages. Seattle, WA here is the string that survived aggregation as SEATTLE in WA. 2008 is a presidential FEC cycle: a two-year window that includes a presidential general election. This page does not split the $417,525 by office, party, or candidate. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

Seattle, WA across every cycle in the aggregate

The city aggregate for Seattle, WA is $327,126,798 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 $417,525 from 2008 and the $326,709,273 from every other cycle in the same city file. Washington campaign-finance pages still mix Seattle with every other city in Washington.

A large city total does not mean 2008 was large, and a small city total does not mean 2008 was small. For Seattle, WA, the city stack is $327,126,798 while this cycle is $417,525 (0.13%). Use the city hub to see Seattle, WA without a year filter, and use this tie page when the question is specifically Seattle in 2008. Donor city is not the same as recipient city: committees that received these gifts can be anywhere in the FEC system.

2008 as a two-year FEC window

The 2008 election cycle is a two-year FEC reporting window labeled by its even year. Inside that window, Seattle, WA donors itemized $417,525 on 347 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $1,203 per itemized gift. That mean is an arithmetic average of rows, not a typical donor and not a median. A few large receipts can lift the mean while most rows sit far below it. This page does not publish a median or a unique-donor count.

The national 2008 hub still includes every other city. State pages for Washington still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates Seattle × 2008. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. Independent expenditures, party coordinated spends, and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables. 347 itemized contribution rows is a moderate file. The dollar total can still be skewed by a few large gifts without this page naming them. Adjacent pages for Seattle, WA, 2008 election cycle, and Washington campaign finance keep those broader cuts; this URL is the intersection only.

Share of $327,126,798 sitting in 2008

0.13% of $327,126,798 is a thin slice. Seattle, WA remains a multi-cycle file; 2008 is one filter on that stack. Put another way, about 0.13% of Seattle, WA's itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2008, and about 99.9% were not. Those percentages are $417,525 divided by $327,126,798 and $326,709,273 divided by $327,126,798. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters.

Dollar share (0.13%) and row volume (347 itemized gifts) are separate facts. A thin slice of citywide dollars can sit next to a moderate contribution 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 0.13% as Seattle's share of the 2008 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts.

347 contribution records from one city-cycle pair

347 itemized contributions totaling $417,525 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 SEATTLE. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of Seattle versus other Washington cities: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean gift size of about $1,203 uses only the two numbers in the join: $417,525 and 347 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 $417,525 out by occupation, industry, or recipient committee.

Limits of a city-by-cycle table

This page does not rank Seattle against other cities, does not call 2008 a wave, and does not treat itemized giving as a proxy for public opinion in Washington. Two columns matched. The city of the contributor is not the city of the campaign. A WA address on an individual receipt does not mean the money supported a Washington candidate.

Unitemized gifts, independent expenditures, and non-individual sources are omitted. See Seattle, WA, the 2008 election cycle, Washington 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 Seattle, WA donors give in the 2008 election cycle?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Seattle, WA total $417,525 in the 2008 cycle, across 347 contribution records. The same city label totals $327,126,798 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2008 is 0.13% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is the Seattle, WA city total only for 2008?

No. The city aggregate of $327,126,798 covers every cycle in the table for SEATTLE. The 2008 filter is $417,525 from 347 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $326,709,273. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2008 slice.

Did Seattle, WA 2008 donations stay in Washington?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Seattle, WA; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $417,525 by office, state of the committee, or party. A WA city code is an address field on the individual receipt, not a map of Washington races.

How many Seattle, WA contributions were itemized in 2008?

347 itemized contribution records sum to $417,525. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $1,203 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.