The donor centre emptied first
Where do reliable campaign donors sit on the left–right scale in each election cycle, and did the middle empty out?
Distribution of reliable individual donors on the common-space CFscore ideology scale, one ridge per federal election cycle. Every ridge has area 1 and all share one height scale.
- Liberal side (below 0)
- Conservative side (above 0)
- Median donor
Select a ridge to read its values: click or tap it, or focus the chart and use the arrow keys, then Enter.
Each ridge is one election cycle’s reliable individual donors on Bonica’s common-space CFscore, in 0.1-wide bins. Every ridge has area 1 and all share one height scale, so a taller peak means a more concentrated cycle, not more donors. A reliable donor gave to at least eight distinct recipients and has an estimated rather than projected score. Scores are fixed per donor, so the slide left after 2004 is a change in who gives and gets itemised — ActBlue-era small-dollar Democrats — not donors moving; the empty centre holds by either count. The dot on each baseline is the median: exact when each donor counts once; read from the bins when dollars are counted (the same method lands within 0.02 of the exact donor median). Dollars are real 2024 dollars (CPI-U).
Ridge summaries · 23 rows
| Cycle | Reliable donor-cycles | Median CFscore, donors | Median CFscore, dollars (binned) | Within ±0.25, donors (%) | Within ±0.25, dollars (%) | Below −0.5 (%) | Above +0.5 (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,980 | 31,138 | 0.62 | 0.57 | 11.8 | 12.3 | 20.1 | 53.2 |
| 1,982 | 25,207 | 0.62 | 0.82 | 12.3 | 9.6 | 19.2 | 53.4 |
| 1,984 | 39,460 | 0.56 | 0.8 | 12 | 10 | 21.7 | 51.5 |
| 1,986 | 45,211 | 0.57 | 0.72 | 13 | 11.1 | 19.6 | 52 |
| 1,988 | 70,902 | 0.42 | 0.58 | 12.7 | 11.1 | 24.1 | 47.8 |
| 1,990 | 111,512 | 0.32 | 0.51 | 11.3 | 11.5 | 28.5 | 45.6 |
| 1,992 | 167,283 | 0.17 | 0.22 | 11 | 10.3 | 32.3 | 42.9 |
| 1,994 | 197,604 | 0.36 | 0.25 | 10.7 | 10.5 | 29 | 46.6 |
| 1,996 | 297,838 | 0.43 | 0.28 | 10.7 | 9.4 | 27.5 | 48.4 |
| 1,998 | 470,028 | 0.23 | 0.14 | 10.1 | 12.3 | 32 | 44.3 |
| 2,000 | 598,971 | 0.25 | 0.39 | 10 | 9.1 | 31.9 | 44.9 |
| 2,002 | 794,413 | 0.1 | 0.18 | 9.6 | 24.5 | 35.3 | 42.5 |
| 2,004 | 1,033,327 | -0.17 | 0.26 | 7.7 | 8.4 | 42.3 | 39.9 |
| 2,006 | 1,142,451 | -0.28 | 0.42 | 7.8 | 7.2 | 44.1 | 37.7 |
| 2,008 | 1,425,885 | -0.49 | -0.15 | 6.2 | 7 | 49.8 | 35.8 |
| 2,010 | 1,409,984 | -0.37 | 0.55 | 6.6 | 7.7 | 46.9 | 38 |
| 2,012 | 1,805,776 | -0.74 | 0.22 | 4.6 | 4.8 | 57 | 32.3 |
| 2,014 | 1,597,010 | -0.74 | 0.42 | 4.8 | 6.6 | 58 | 30.7 |
| 2,016 | 1,978,112 | -0.89 | -0.27 | 3.4 | 4.6 | 64.4 | 27.6 |
| 2,018 | 2,161,252 | -0.95 | -0.6 | 2.5 | 3.5 | 72.8 | 21.2 |
Densities by bin · 1,150 rows
| Cycle | CFscore bin centre | Density, donors | Density, dollars |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,980 | -2.45 | 0 | 0 |
| 1,980 | -2.35 | 0 | 0 |
| 1,980 | -2.25 | 0 | 0 |
| 1,980 | -2.15 | 0 | 0 |
| 1,980 | -2.05 | 0 | 0 |
| 1,980 | -1.95 | 0 | 0 |
| 1,980 | -1.85 | 0 | 0 |
| 1,980 | -1.75 | 0 | 0 |
| 1,980 | -1.65 | 0 | 0 |
| 1,980 | -1.55 | 0 | 0 |
| 1,980 | -1.45 | 0 | 0 |
| 1,980 | -1.35 | 0 | 0 |
| 1,980 | -1.25 | 0 | 0 |
| 1,980 | -1.15 | 0 | 0 |
| 1,980 | -1.05 | 0.04 | 0.02 |
| 1,980 | -0.95 | 0.24 | 0.16 |
| 1,980 | -0.85 | 0.39 | 0.4 |
| 1,980 | -0.75 | 0.45 | 0.48 |
| 1,980 | -0.65 | 0.47 | 0.5 |
| 1,980 | -0.55 | 0.42 | 0.45 |
Stanford DIME v4.0 (Bonica) · reliable individual donors, federal cycles 1980–2024
Reading notes
CFscores are fixed per donor, so the ridges show who was giving in each cycle, not donors changing their views; the slide left after 2004 reflects the itemisation of small-dollar Democratic giving. The dollar-weighted median is read from 0.1-wide bins.
Source & method
Stanford DIME v4.0 (Bonica) · reliable individual donors, federal cycles 1980–2024
Kept the 23 per-cycle CFscore distributions of reliable individual donors (1980–2024) in both of the source's weightings: one donor-cycle, one observation, and weighted by real-2024 dollars (the source's `amount`, renamed `dollars`). Each is a density over 50 bins of width 0.1 from −2.5 to +2.5 (share of the cycle's total in the bin ÷ 0.1, so every ridge has area 1); scores beyond ±2.5 sit in the edge bins, as the source clamps them. Kept the per-cycle summaries the source computes exactly from unbinned scores: n (reliable donor-cycles), the donor-weighted median, and the shares within ±0.25 of zero (by donors and by dollars), below −0.5 and above +0.5 (by donors). Derived one value: a dollar-weighted median, interpolated inside the 0.1-wide bin where the cumulative dollar share crosses one half. It is labelled as binned wherever it is shown; the same derivation reproduces the exact donor-weighted median to within 0.021 in every cycle. Dropped the candidate-divergence and moderate-candidate series, which describe candidates rather than donors.
Capture provenance
- box:Politics / analysis/the-money-sorted-first/data.json
- Modified 2026-06-26 · SHA-256 7b8e7a9665078513df412432635bd340725adec51cbd160ee7bcee01aebd8232
- Captured
- 2026-09-12
- Fixture SHA-256
- 2cbfe205ca2a792943521fbdc81a5a4c146998fc7838a40798ee4de9ed2ba405
- Reuse note
- Aggregates of Stanford DIME v4.0 (Database on Ideology, Money in Politics, and Elections, Adam Bonica), distributed for research and non-commercial use; cite Bonica, DIME v4.0, Stanford University Libraries. CFscores are static per donor, so the ridges show the changing composition of active donors, not donors moving.
