Elite donors hold the most sway over state campaigns
In a state with nearly 38 million people, few have more influence than the top 100 donors to California campaigns — a powerful club that has contributed overwhelmingly to Democrats and spent $1.25 billion to influence voters over the past dozen years.
These big spenders represent a tiny fraction of the hundreds of thousands of individuals and groups that donated to California campaigns from 2001 through 2011. But they supplied about one-third of the $3.67 billion given to state campaigns during that time, campaign records show.
With a few exceptions, these campaign elites have gotten their money’s worth, according to California Watch’s analysis
of campaign data from state finance records and the nonpartisan National Institute on Money in State Politics, which tracks the influence of campaign money on state elections.
The state’s top 100 donors gave nearly five times as much to winning candidates as they did to losers. They also helped steer initiative campaigns to success — about 55 percent of every dollar they contributed to propositions aided a winning campaign, the analysis shows.
Some of the donors are giving heavily in the 2012 election cycle. Tobacco companies Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds have spent more than $30 million since January to defeat Proposition 29, an initiative on Tuesday’s ballot that would increase the cigarette tax in the state.
Democrats benefit
Not surprisingly in California, the top donors directed their money in large part toward the Democratic Party, which controls the governor’s office and the state Legislature. Overall, these donors — 50 wealthy individuals and 50 special interest groups analyzed by California Watch — gave twice as much to Democratic candidates as they did members of other political parties.
But there was a split: Special-interest donors favored Democrats, while individual donors favored Republicans by a slim margin.
When broken down, records show the top 50 group contributors — including labor unions, energy companies and tribal governments — were three times more likely to give to Democratic candidates. The top 50 individuals, however, gave slightly more to Republicans.
The state’s most extravagant individual donor and biggest campaign loser is Stephen Bing, the real estate scion and Hollywood producer. He gave more money than any other individual to a state campaign — $49.5 million in 2006 to support Proposition 87, known as the alternative energy oil tax, which failed.
But Bing proved that a handful of California’s richest special interests and individuals have an outsize voice in elections in the state. The campaign he spearheaded became one of the most expensive in California history, drawing more than $156 million in contributions. Chevron, Aera Energy and Occidental Oil & Gas donated a combined $80 million to fight Bing’s measure.
Teachers union is tops
The biggest special interest donor, the California Teachers Association, spent more than $118 million on campaigns in the state during the past five election cycles and the first half of this one. The union has focused overwhelmingly on initiatives, spending $100 million of that war chest advocating and opposing ballot measures over the past dozen years.
More than a third of its spending went to fight four propositions that were key pieces of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s attempted government overhaul in 2005. The measures, all of which failed, would have extended the probationary period for teachers, altered the formula for funding public schools, required employee consent on union dues and removed redistricting powers from the Legislature.
Eight tribal governments also made the list of top special-interest donors. But two stood out: The Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians and the Morongo Band of Mission Indians spent a combined $80 million in 2008 supporting four propositions to expand tribal gambling operations. All of the measures passed.
Bing, who also donated to Democratic candidates, was a bit of an outlier among the largest individual donors. The five most-generous donors gave twice as much to Republicans than to Democrats.
Other big donors
Andrew Jerrold “Jerry” Perenchio, the former chairman and CEO of Univision, and Charles T. Munger Jr., a wealthy Stanford physicist and son of Berkshire Hathaway’s billionaire Vice Chairman Charles Munger, were the state’s second- and third-largest donors.
Perenchio gave at least $9.3 million to the state’s GOP, and Munger, who contributed mostly to ballot measures, is active in Republican politics.
The California Teachers Association, which has 325,000 members, said it uses an internal council of more than 800 members to vote on which candidates and causes to support.
When collecting dues from its members for political causes, the union operates a twotiered system. Members give $8 a year to a committee that supports candidates and $36 annually to a ballot measure committee. They have the right to opt out of both committees.
To campaign against Schwarzenegger’s 2005 ballot measures, members voted to increase annual contributions to $60 for three years.
Big Tobacco gives big
Tobacco companies have a long history of big spending on California initiatives. R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris combined to spend $60.5 million opposing Proposition 86 in 2006, which also would have increased taxes on cigarettes. More than $83 million was donated in support and opposition of the measure, but proponents of the tax were outspent, 4-1.
Initiative campaigns are a safer bet for donors, despite a lower success rate.
“When you give money to a person, that person could end up being a disappointment,” said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College who focuses on California issues. “A ballot initiative is an inanimate object. It cannot double-cross you.”
AT&T spread its contributions around more than any other top donor. The company donated to more than 700 campaigns. Less than 10 percent of the nearly $10 million it donated went to ballot measures. Of the rest, $3.7 million went to Republicans and $5.3 million went to Democrats.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the third-largest donor, gave to nearly 600 campaigns for political candidates. Democrats received $3.2 million, compared with $1.8 million for Republicans. The majority of the utility’s $67 million in donations went to support or oppose ballot measures.
Political contributions come from the company’s shareholders’ fund and not from public utility customers’ payments, spokeswoman Lynsey Paulo said.