The Cash
Final campaign finance reports for the 2006 election are due today, and are still trickling in as the day ends.
And boy, there was a lot of cash changing hands.
A few notables (updated as more info becomes available):
* The campaign against Proposition 87, may have set a record of their own: a whopping $92.95 million spent to beat back the initiative that would have imposed a tax on oil drilling, with proceeds to go to alternative energy research.
* The main political team organized to pass the infrastructure bonds (Propositions 1A-1E) spent about $7.3 million. You might think that’s a lot, until you see what the team that campaigned specifically for the education bond, Proposition 1D, spent: $11.3 million.
* Governor Schwarzenegger’s campaign spent $45.9 million in his successful bid for another term. However, the governor personally chipped in $5.5 million of his own money in 2006. But what’s really odd is that Schwarzenegger wrote a $2 million check on October 26. That’s one day after a statewide poll showed him beating Democrat Phil Angelides by 18 points. It begs the question… why chip in so much so late, especially when he was so far ahead?
* Speaking of Angelides, his campaign spent more than $39 million. That’s almost $85 million between the two major gubernatorial candidates.
* The most expensive legislative races appears to have been the race for Orange County’s 34th Senate district, where Democrat Lou Correa edged out Republican Lynn Daucher. The two campaigns spent a combined $6.24 million, with Daucher spending slightly more than Correa.
* The California Republican Party outspent the California Democratic Party, with the GOP shelling out almost $48 million and Dems spending a little more than $34 million. It’s hard not to notice that the GOP’s spending largely only got them the governorship. They failed to pick up any legislative seats, and the only other Republican winner– Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner– largely paid for his own campaign, writing personal checks for more than $10 million of the $15.3 million he spent to win.




