Contributions Determine Winners

Emily Atkins

4.15.08

Excel Story

WRI 313

Cervantes

Contributions Determine Winners

The 2000 elections for San Diego City Council were not a race between candidates, but a race between independent contributors. The Teacher’s Union, Police Union and Save Our Planet Group were the major players to watch as they donated millions of dollars in the form of street posters, yard signs and TV advertising.

Not surprisingly, the candidates who received the most money in contributions were the winners. Peterson, Adams and McDonald received over 8 million dollars each. Peterson had the highest amount of contributions, totaling in at $11,931,499. He was victorious once again in the elections, beating out his lesser-funded competitors.

Now, what’s wrong with this scenario? The fact that the outcome of an election can be controlled by money from outside contributors should be a serious red flag to the public.

There was a clear gap in campaign contributions between the winners and the losers of the elections. While each of the winners raised more than $8 million, none of the losers managed to raise more than $4 million. Thurston, Johnson and Smith had a combined total of contributions of $7,395,502. Adams, who received $8.6 million, the lowest amount of contributions out of the top three, still received a higher amount of campaign contributions than the combined totals of Thurston, Johnson and Smith.

The amount of money being spent on political campaigns could benefit the city elsewhere. The total spent for the 2000 elections was up from the 1996 elections, coming in at nearly $38 million. One look at the interest groups begs the question, where else could this money go?

The Police Union spent the least, coming in just over $5 million. The Teacher’s Union spent $12 million, giving nearly half of their contributions to McDonald, who won his election. However, the most influential group was the Save Our Planet Group, who spent $20 million in total campaign contributions, contributing around 50 percent of the top candidates’ total expenditures. The Save Our Planet Group was also largely responsible for the TV advertising for McDonald, Peterson and Adams.

In fact, TV advertising accounted for the largest amount of money out of all the campaign contributions, coming in at $21 million. Peterson, McDonald and Adams spent over half of their total campaign money on TV advertising. Thurston and Johnson didn’t spend any money on TV advertising, while Smith spent a paltry $1.2 million. As this was the most popular form of campaigning, there’s no doubt that the lack of funds restricting Thurston, Johnson and Smith’s TV time negatively affected their chances of winning.

The amount spent on TV advertising increased dramatically from the 1996 elections. In 1996, most of the campaign contributions went to direct mail pieces, while the 2000 elections saw a meager $2 million spent on mailers.

Clearly, money is speaking louder than candidates in the San Diego City Council elections. The question is, when will the public speak louder than interest groups and their campaign contributions?