Competitive Districts

15-1807

In the wake of seemingly endless streams of money pouring into politics, it is more important than ever to understand the ways money is used in the political arena and the effects it has. This is true not just on the federal level, but also on the state and local level where donors can often find a large bang for their buck. The current study analyzes campaign finance trends in California state legislative races for the 2014 election cycle. It explores campaign expenditures and independent expenditures across the 80 Assembly races and 20 Senate races, while also focusing on the highest spending districts using data from the California Secretary of State’s Cal-Access database. Each section provides an overview of the spending and analyzes patterns. The study also addresses the question whether spending for a given candidate correlated to winning. The results supported our hypothesis that in the majority of races the highest spender was the winner. Furthermore, the study illustrated the differences in party spending, campaign and independent expenditure spending timelines, and the unique attributes of high spending districts.