Airbnb, the LAPD union, a landlord giant: Where the money's coming from in LA's race for mayor

New campaign finance data shows who’s bankrolling the closely watched race for Los Angeles mayor — and most of the money is backing Mayor Karen Bass.

Money supporting Bass — whether in direct donations, public matching funds or outside spending — has outpaced money backing City Councilmember Nithya Raman by about 3 to 1.

The disparities in the mayor’s race are much starker among groups that handle the largest donations because they’re not subject to contribution limits. Those money flows from independent expenditure committees have backed Bass 36-to-1, compared to Raman.

Among money raised directly by candidates, donors who gave $1,000 or more account for 47% of Bass’ donors and 18% of Raman’s. Those donors are subject to an $1,800 per donor limit.

A look at the top spenders

The largest spender so far is the LAPD officers’ union, which reported spending $1.2 million on ads against Raman — who made the runoff — and progressive community organizer Rae Huang, who didn’t. The data covers what’s been reported so far for the 2026 election cycle, including the lead up to the June primary.

The second-biggest is Airbnb, which reported giving $750,000 to a committee backing Bass. This year, Bass advanced a proposal backed by the company to relax city regulations by letting Airbnb hosts rent out second homes and investment properties through 2028.

Another large spender is Douglas Emmett, one of L.A.'s largest commercial landlords. The company gave $525,000 to the police union’s main spending committee, of which at least $225,000 was disclosed on anti-Raman ads by the committee.

In recent years, the company is known for attempting the largest eviction from rent-controlled housing in Los Angeles in at least four decades, citing a need to upgrade fire sprinklers. The city declined to legally intervene on behalf of the renters, who ended up suing and winning a 2024 court ruling that found the evictions were illegal.

Significant spending for Bass has also come from several other large unions for workers, including about $200,000 from Laborers’ Local 300 — which represents workers in construction and maintenance — and $180,000 from affiliates of SEIU, which represents most of the city government’s staff.

The latest spending numbers come from city data based on disclosures required by state law to be filed by the spending committees. Friday (Aug. 1) was the deadline to submit a more complete set of filings showing all raising and spending in the first half of this year.

Bass had a head start for years, entering this year with a hefty $1.5 million in her re-election account. Raman started fundraising in February.

Other big spenders

• $100,000 to a pro-Bass committee from the construction workers’ group State Building and Construction Trades Council of California.
• $50,000 to a pro-Bass committee from Kaiser Permanente CEO Gregory Adams.
• $50,000 to a pro-Raman committee from Arts District redeveloper Yuval Bar-Zemer.  
• $25,000 to a pro-Bass committee from the real estate company of Frank McCourt.  McCourt co-owns the parking lots around Dodger Stadium and has been seeking approvals from the L.A. Metro board — which Bass serves on and now chairs — for a controversial gondola project.

Records show unions spent big against candidate and Spencer Pratt, a former reality TV star who did not make the runoff. The umbrella group for unions in the region — the L.A. County Federation of Labor — reported spending about $500,000 against Pratt, paid by a committee largely funded by the union for L.A. County sheriff’s deputies.

Pratt was supported by about $329,000 in spending by the Save L.A. committee. The committee was funded largely by four executives: John Hering, the San Francisco-based founder of cybersecurity company Lookout; Jason Larian, the L.A.-based president of Zero Point Capital; Redwood City-based David Dollinger of Silicon Valley landlord company Dollinger Properties; and Phillip Sarofim, the L.A.-based founder of the investment firm Trousdale Ventures.

How the biggest donations flow

Direct giving to the candidates’ campaigns is legally restricted to $1,800 per donor each election cycle. So the biggest donors instead spend through “independent expenditure” committees, or “IEs.” State law allows individual donors to spend unlimited amounts on elections through IEs, as long as it’s not coordinated with the candidates’ campaigns.

That IE money often flows through multiple committees — many of which combine money meant for candidates in multiple different races — on its way to election ads, which can make the money hard for the public to easily track.

The general election will take place Nov. 3, with ballots mailed to registered voters about a month ahead of time.