How to follow the money in local races this election season

This is an excerpt from Make It Make Sense, our pop-up newsletter on the 2024 election. If you want weekly updates through September on following the money this election season, sign up here.

Campaign mailers, robocalls, unsolicited texts and TV ads — who’s spending all that money to sway your vote?

With Election Day less than three months away, we’re kicking off a short series to help you follow the money in local races this election season.

In the weeks ahead, we’ll look closely at spending in specific races, like L.A. County district attorney and some statewide ballot measures. But before we get into the details of who’s spending money and how much, let’s talk about what we’re actually looking at when we look at campaign finance, and why.

My colleague Maloy Moore is a longtime data journalist who’s spent decades diving deep into campaign finance. I spoke with her to get her tips — her advice is to use the data as a way to ask more questions about the candidates and inform your overall picture of the race.

“It’s shining a light on who is giving and how the money is spent,” she said.

Here are three major themes she looks for when following the money:

Who’s spending money on a race outside of an official campaign?

Why this matters: Outside spending is money spent by independent groups to support or oppose a candidate that takes place outside of an official campaign. Seeing how much outside spending is in a race can give you a sense of who’s spending big to back a particular candidate.

How so? Candidates have to follow all kinds of rules when it comes to raising or spending money. For instance, anyone running for L.A. City Council can only receive up to $900 in contributions per donor in an election cycle, and can’t receive money from people like lobbyists, developers or city contractors. But independent committees who want to put out their own ads supporting or opposing a candidate can raise money to do it — and as long as it’s not affiliated with the official campaign, there are no limits to how much they can raise or spend. (Note that this applies to ballot measures, too.)

“It’s important to just be aware of who is interested in electing somebody or getting a ballot measure passed,” Maloy said. “Who are the players in this? That’s what this is all about.”

Where to spot this during election season: LAist’s voter guides (which are rolling out this month and October for the November election) include a “Follow the money” section that displays campaign spending and outside spending for a given race. Also, when you receive an election mailer or spot a political ad, check the fine print that says who paid for it. That’ll give you a hint as to whether it’s coming from a candidate’s campaign or an independent group using outside spending.

Are there lots of small donations or a handful of big ones?

Why this matters: The candidate who raises the most money doesn’t always win. The kind of donations they’re receiving, and from whom — small donors, big donors, or their own money — can give a clearer idea of what a candidate’s support base looks like.

How so? If a candidate is attracting thousands of small donations — maybe even just $20 or $50 a person — that suggests they have strong grassroots support, even if those donors don’t have deep pockets. Similarly, if another candidate gets most of their funds from a few big groups, or uses their own money, that may raise more questions about how many voters will actually turn out for them on Election Day.

L.A. mayoral candidate Rick Caruso speaking to supporters on election night at The Grove in Los Angeles on June 7, 2022.

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Jackie Fortier

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LAist

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Case in point: Billionaire developer Rick Caruso spent more than $100 million on his 2022 campaign for mayor, completely dwarfing the spending of his opponent, Karen Bass. But his campaign was overwhelmingly self-funded, and he ended up losing the race.

Where to spot this during election season: You can always peruse campaign finance filings to get a sense of someone’s donation base — though fair warning, it takes some time. The L.A. City Ethics Commission has one of the more user-friendly campaign finance databases, For statewide candidates or ballot measures, check out Cal-Access.

How much money is coming from outside California?

Why this matters: Candidates often receive money from outside the city, county or even state in which they’re running — and the same goes for ballot measure campaigns. Knowing what proportion of donations are local or not may give you a clue as to how much support the person running for office has locally.

How so? “Let’s say 40% of a candidate’s money is not even coming from their district, it’s coming from someplace else,” Maloy said. “It may make you ask: Is there something I should be thinking about with this candidate? Do they have the kind of support they’ll need to be successful?”

Additionally, particular races sometimes become proxies for bigger battles nationwide. Knowing how much money is coming from outside the county or state, and from whom, can give you broader context for how that race may be a part of a larger strategy.

Where to spot this during election season: Real talk, this takes some digging. The best information available is the ZIP code included on committees’ campaign finance filings (click here to explore L.A. and here to explore statewide races).

What’s next

If you’re signed up for our newsletter Make It Make Sense, you’ll see our campaign finance mini-series land in your inbox once a week through September.

Our next topic is a dissection of one of our favorite election items: unsolicited political mailers. Who paid for it? How can you tell who’s behind a committee? And what other measures or candidates might they be connected to? If you receive any political mail in the next few weeks and just have to know more about it, send it my way: blee@scpr.org.

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