Report: New Tool Reveals $80M in Independent Expenditures Spent in California’s 2014 Election

MapLight, a nonpartisan research organization that tracks money in politics, is pleased to make its California Independent Expenditures Search Engine freely available to the public. The search tool uses the California Secretary of State's CAL-ACCESS raw bulk data and updates daily.

Independent expenditures are payments made in support of or opposition to a candidate or ballot measure by major donors (including companies or individuals) and independent expenditure committees, which are operated by a variety of politically active organizations such as political parties, unions, and trade associations. The money, spent independently of a candidate or ballot measure committee, usually takes the form of a communication such as an advertisement, mailer, or robocall. A more detailed explanation can be found here.

MapLight analysts have incorporated many features into the dataset including standardization of candidate and ballot measure names, removal of duplicate filings, inclusion of unitemized independent expenditures, expender ID-specific searches, ability to download CSV file for further exploration, and more.

A MapLight analysis of independent expenditure data in the 2014 election cycle in California shows independent expenditure money spent on state-wide offices; a breakdown of expenditures by key races; money spent in support of or opposition to candidates and ballot measures, as well as a breakdown of expenditures by gender.  Date range: Jan. 1, 2013 and Dec. 31, 2014  Data source: MapLight California Independent Expenditures Search

• Major donor and independent expenditure committees spent $80,671,228 on candidates and ballot measures.
  
• $56,914,682 (71%) of the $80,671,228 was spent in support of candidates and ballot measures, and $23,617,714 (29%) in opposition.

Total Spent Supporting and Opposing Candidates by Office:

Legislative Chamber	Total Amount
State Assembly	$30,276,326
State Senate	$24,940,763

Statewide Office	Total Amount
Superintendent of Public Instruction	$20,256,376
State Controller	$961,088
Governor	$665,357
Secretary of State	$381,617
Board of Equalization	$256,022
Attorney General	$38,660
State Treasurer	$27,128
Lieutenant Governor	$26,528
Insurance Commissioner	$12,229

Top 5 Races for State Assembly by Amount Spent:

Top 5 Races for State Senate by Amount Spent:

Total Amount Spent on Opposing Candidates by Party:

Party	Total Amount
Democratic	$13,222,662
Republican	$5,910,578
Independent	$146,960
N/A	$68,035
Non-partisan	$4,031,822

Total Amount Spent in Support of a Candidate by Candidate's Gender: 

Total Amount Spent in Opposition to a Candidate by Candidate's Gender: 

 

Assembly District 16 (East Bay):

Tim Sbranti (D) and Catharine Baker (R) faced each other in the general election for Assembly District 16 in the East Bay, the assembly race with the most independent expenditures in the 2014 cycle. Baker, who won the election, became the first Republican to be elected from the Bay Area to the legislature since 2006. Sbranti, a former member of the California Teachers Association (CTA) State Council, received significant support from the CTA and other teacher groups. Baker received support from JobsPAC, a group backed by the California Chamber of Commerce.

Senate District 34 (Long Beach, Anaheim):

Jose Solorio (D) and Janet Nguyen (R) faced each other in the general election for Senate District 34 representing portions of Long Beach and Anaheim. Many anticipated that the Democratic supermajority in the State Senate would rest on the outcome of the race for Senate District 34, encouraging spending from both the Democratic and Republican sides and making it the most expensive State Senate race in the 2014 cycle. Nguyen won the race, ending the Democratic supermajority in the State Senate.