AJAX Hook Not Responding

I really need some help figuring out what is wrong with my code. I think I am 90% there but am having issues figure out the last bit to make this work. I would love any help and suggestions you could offer.

I have an app I am working on that lists a bunch of items. On each row is an add button. The add button is supposed to add the item to a custom table in wp. The jQuery button gets all the data correctly. Testing the php data handling desperately proved it all works. The trouble is for some reason my ajax call is not going through, or returning info.

This is my first go with ajax. It is also my first time trying to use the built in ajax handling of WordPress, or any other action hook type stuff.

I have all of this code in a template page. If it can stay, great. If I need to move it to separate files I can do that. I just need to get this to work.

Here is the stripped down code.

<?php
add_action( 'admin_footer', 'addItemAJAX_javascript' );

function addItemAJAX_javascript() {
	$adminAJAX =  admin_url('admin-ajax.php');
?>
<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript">
jQuery( document ).ready( function( $ ) {
  $(function() {
    $( "input[name=btnAddItem]" )
      .button()
      .click(function( event ) {
        event.preventDefault();
//... working javascript to get data values/assign vars

//WP ajax call
			$.post(ajaxurl, data, function(response) {
                // ERROR HANDLING
                if( !response.success ) {
                    // No data came back, maybe a security error
                    if( !response.data )
                        alert('AJAX ERROR: no response'); //$( '#my-answer' ).html( 'AJAX ERROR: no response' );
                    else
                        alert(response.data.error); //$( '#my-answer' ).html( response.data.error );
                }
                else
                    alert(response.data); // $( '#my-answer' ).html( response.data );
			});
      });
  });
});
</script>

<?php
};
addItemAJAX_javascript();

// PHP SIDE OF AJAX - Handeling Request  //// AJAX PROCESSING
// When the user is not logged in:
add_action('wp_ajax_addItemAJAX', 'addItemAJAX_callback');
// When the user is logged in
add_action( 'wp_ajax_nopriv_addItemAJAX', 'addItemAJAX_callback' );  

function addItemAJAX_callback() {
	global $wpdb;
	$charID = $_POST['charID'];
	$itemID = $_POST['itemID'];
	$buyItem = $_POST['buyItem'];

//... working database changes

	$debugArray = Array();
 	array_push($debugArray,$charID, $itemID, $buyItem, $getItemDetailsSQL, $getItemDetailsResults,
								$newItemAdded, $newCash);
	die(json_encode($debugArray));
}
?>

When looking at the console it grabs the data, appears to try to talk to the right url but my alert box always returns “AJAX ERROR: no response”. Here is the console output.

cID = 112 ?charID=112:538
charMoney = 9990 ?charID=112:539
thisValue = + ?charID=112:540
iID = 664 ?charID=112:541
buy = 0 ?charID=112:542
ajaxurl = http://localhost/nnnn.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php ?charID=112:543
data = [object Object] ?charID=112:550
Object {action: "addItemAJAX", charID: 112, itemID: 664, buyItem: 0} ?charID=112:551
XHR finished loading: "http://localhost/nnnn.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php". jquery-1.9.1.js:8526
send jquery-1.9.1.js:8526
jQuery.extend.ajax jquery-1.9.1.js:7978
jQuery.(anonymous function) jquery-1.9.1.js:7614
(anonymous function) ?charID=112:554
jQuery.event.dispatch jquery-1.9.1.js:3074
elemData.handle

It seems I am missing one little thing but I can not figure out what.

Another though was to scrap a bunch of this and try to do this with jQuery forms. Though I do not know if it is a good idea to have the code pop a form for each row.

Anyway your thoughts and suggestions are welcome. Thank you for your help!