S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on this episode of KPBS Midday Edition , in collaboration with eNews Source and Voice of San Diego. We look into where the money is coming from to back the candidates on your ballot. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. Money and politics go hand in hand. But for this midterm election , money is pouring into politics at new levels here in San Diego , KPBS and Voice of San Diego dug into campaign finance filings to get a sense of the biggest spenders in regional politics. It's part of our public matters partnership between KPBS , Voice of San Diego and a news source. Joining me to talk about it is Jakarta. He's public matters reporter for KPBS. Jake , hello.
S2: Thank you for having me.
S1: Glad to have you here. Also with us is Lisa Halberstam. She's a senior investigative reporter with Voice of San Diego. Lisa. Welcome again.
S3: Hello , Jade.
S1: So , Lisa , I'm going to start with you. Walk us through the story behind this project. What were you trying to achieve?
S3: Well , I'm not sure whether I should take the credit or the blame here , but I had this idea. I thought , you know , it's really natural. Journalists want to follow the money , right? And I thought it'd be really interesting to find out who are the top power players and influence peddlers in our campaigns. And so we set about trying to track this , and it actually turned out to be a pretty difficult project. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. And tell me more about that , that difficulty Jake. I mean what was the process behind gathering all this data. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. First I want to thank Lisa for being willing to join me in this project and wanting me to join on with her. It was really fun. And so , you know , partially blame , but also thank you. Um , the process was , as she said , a little difficult and we couldn't have done it. And I really need to emphasize this. We could not have done this project without our our in-house data guy and web developer Michael Wayne , who did a whole bunch of work figuring out how to gather this information from multiple different sources and then compile it into one spreadsheet that we could then read and track and match against the original filings. It's a big pain. It's a big pain. And it took him a lot of trial and error , figuring out how to get these campaign filings that are just like documents or Excel files from the city of San Diego , multiple different cities in San Diego County from the county itself , and then also from the state. And then we also had to make sure that we weren't like double counting , because they file with the state and they file with the county and all that. It was it was a long process , but we went through a lot of trial and error. We were able to pare this list down and find out who was actually spending the most money , right here in San Diego County on the San Diego races. And yeah , it was a long process , but it was worth the payout , I think.
S1: All right. So what did you find , Lisa?
S3: Well , let's start then , with the top spenders. I think I'm going to give you a top five. So up first was the California Democratic Party. They spent $3.2 million on San Diego candidates through mid-October , which is the filing cutoff that we looked at. Um , then there was the yes on B countywide half cent sales tax campaign to try to fund causes including health care , Tijuana River solutions and public safety , among other things. They spent more than $2.5 million , of course , all on their campaign. Then we have the California lead super PAC , and number three , they spent $2.5 million. Interestingly , a good chunk of that was on a failed state Senate candidate , uh , which we have some questions about. Uh , number four was Carl DeMaio , a state assemblyman , um , whose campaign committee spent about $2.1 $1 million. Interestingly , a good chunk of his money went to his voter guide , the Reform California Guide , and also gifts to other candidates. And coming in at number five was Catherine Blake Speer , a state senator? Interesting.
S1: Interesting. So , Jake , where's all this money coming from? Who are the top donors? Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So , um , a lot of this money is coming from places like the California Democratic Party itself. We said they're one of the spenders , and then they also give money to candidates and campaigns. The San Diego Democratic Party has contributed lots of money to Catherine Blake Spear for her run. And then in San Diego County. Overall , there's a labor group called Laborers International Union of North America Local 89 PAC fund. It's a long title , but Luna Local 89 is the shorthand for that. And they contributed more than $1 million , $1.3 million to various other PACs and committees that then spent on their behalf. So the Leona Labors International Group gave the San Diego Labor Coalition , which is a PAC $600,000 , and then that San Diego Labor Coalition spent that money supporting local candidates. They supported Gerardo Ramirez for city council , Francisco Tamayo for Chula Vista mayor. So there's really a lot of ways that , like these donors and these funders will move money around into other committees and PACs , which then spend it on their behalf. And so that was part of the challenge , was figuring out how to track all that money through these different routes. And one of the things that we found going back to the California Democratic Party as our top spender , they spend a lot of money on behalf of these candidates on these local races. So the California Democratic Party is buying mailers , they're buying ad space , they're buying Instagram ads on behalf of these candidates. So they spent more than $1.5 million supporting Katherine Blake Spear in her re-election bid for state Senate. And then Katherine Blake. Spear's campaign also spent $2 million themselves. And so there's a lot of money that was being spent on that race. So a whole bunch. And then so we mentioned California leads , spent a bunch of money on the state Senate race for Senate District 40 in the primary. There's also a lot of spending still going into that race in support of or against the current candidate , Mara Elliott , who's running as a Democrat for that one. So there's really a lot of money going into just a few of these races here in San Diego counties is quite interesting to me.
S1: You had to do a lot of work to to follow that money trail. Lisa , did you find any other notable donors that we should be paying attention to? Yes.
S3: Yes. What really stuck out to me were Airbnb and the California Association of Realtors. So one , the California Association of Realtors , they have multiple different committees. One of them spent more than $990,000 against that second home tax that failed in the primary measure A in the city of San Diego. They're also donating a lot to various candidates for state and local offices and to a PAC that supports , most recently as supported Palomar Health District candidates , but has gotten involved in other races. And then there's Airbnb , where we track nearly $660,000 in big donations to various candidates , also to the Laborers International Union of North America uh Accountability Project , which , uh , the line item for that was a potential public safety and infrastructure measure , and also to a committee supporting former council candidate Josh Cohen , who didn't make it through the primary. I think what really sticks out about these two , um , entities in particular is it's clear that they're putting a lot of money in throughout , um , the campaign season , both in the primaries and then also in the general election. Um , and so I think they're pretty significant power players these days in our local elections.
S1: Now with the California Realtors and Airbnb. Are they supporting you? Say they. They are supporting some candidates. Are they? What's the party affiliation here?
S3: So it's a mix. It's not necessarily just one affiliation. There seems to just be a pattern. And this isn't entirely uncommon. Um , you know , where a lot of corporate entities will be donating to folks on both sides of the aisle who are in particular power positions , especially if they're the head of a key committee that really matters , um , to this entity , they'll donate. And so their patterns seem to really match a lot of what I've seen over the years when you look at corporate donors and I. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. Speaking of corporate donors , that group , California leads the super PAC that we talked about that spent a bunch , including in the primary and Senate District 40. They're funded almost entirely by Google and Meta , which is the Facebook company. Both of those have given multiple millions of dollars to that PAC. But then that PAC spends on behalf of Republican and Democratic candidates , they have since the primary contributed $870,000 or spent that sorry on Darshana Patel's behalf. She's a Democrat running for re-election to the Assembly. And when you look at California leads statewide , they contribute or spend on behalf of Democrats and Republicans. So it's really not taking sides when it comes to these very large corporate players. They're spending on behalf of anybody who's going to be in office. Interesting.
S1: Interesting. You know what , if anything , surprised you out of this campaign finance project , Jake? Yeah.
S2: Yeah. To me , like I said , one of the things that was surprising was seeing these groups spend on behalf of both Democrats and Republicans. They're not really picking sides there. Another thing that stuck out to me that we haven't mentioned. There was one individual who got into our list of top ten contributors and spenders. This is Stephen Richter , who has contributed $550,000 to protect San Diego in support of Richard Bailey for City Council , another hundred thousand to SD politics over policy , sorry policy over politics in support of Richard Bailey for City Council again. So he's really taking it upon himself to fund Richard Bailey's effort to get on to the San Diego City Council. He also put a lot of money behind the attempts to unseat Mayor Todd Gloria in 2024. That was unsuccessful. So there's one individual here in San Diego who's really trying to shake up that City hall , and we'll see if that works out after this election.
S1: All right. Well , Lisa , what questions do you still have that you haven't been able to answer?
S3: Well , I think this relates to what Jake is saying just now. I think my big question is just like a lot about the motivations of these different individuals and groups. And , you know , what are they trying to drive? What kind of influence are they trying to peddle? Um , I still have a lot of questions about that. I think it's important to note , too , that we won't have as many answers until after this election. Um , not just in terms of , you know , following. Where does the money go in terms of like , you know , which candidates get money and then what do they end up doing if they're elected? But also just because of campaign finance deadlines , we're not going to see the full spending and donations tied to this election until February. That's when the final campaign finance deadline is for these elections. And so we may have a lot more work to do come February.
S1: And , Jake , how do you hope people use this information ahead of Election Day?
S2: You know , I just hope it can help inform people as they're making their choices and they're seeing who these candidates are supported by , and then they can make their own determinations of if that means that they want to support that candidate or not. I think there's a really strong track record of candidates turning around and supporting their donors when it comes time , when they're in office. And so that's something that most people can expect from any politician. And so when you can understand where these politicians are getting their money , who's spending on their behalf. You can sort of get an idea of the type of politician that they might be once they're in office , and I challenge politicians out there who might hear that to prove me wrong.
S1: All right. Well , great reporting , you all. I've been speaking with Jake. Got a Public matters reporter for KPBS. Thanks , Jake.
S2: Thank you so much.
S1: And also , Lisa Halvorsen , senior investigative reporter at Voice of San Diego. Lisa. Thank you.
S4: Thanks , Jade.
S1: For more information about the money pouring into San Diego politics this election season , check out the Public Matters campaign finance project. You'll find that at KPBS. That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
