MORE ON: campaign finance

In losing the 2010 governor’s race, Republican Meg Whitman set a record for political spending in a California election: Her campaign cost $178.5 million. But Whitman’s losing campaign against Democrat Jerry Brown appears somewhat more economical in terms of dollars spent per vote... + read more

Everywhere Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney goes, he is followed by "trackers" with video cameras, hoping to catch him making an embarrassing gaffe.  The effort, run by a super political action committee, is funded in part by wealthy Californians. American Bridge... + read more

If super political action committee dollars were votes in the Republican presidential primary, California would already have voted resoundingly for Mitt Romney. Restore Our Future, the super PAC supporting the former Massachusetts governor, collected $2.3 million from Californians last year,... + read more

UPDATE, Jan. 27, 2012: Mercury Insurance provided this response to questions about its record. The 90-year-old billionaire chairman of Mercury Insurance just won’t give up. George Joseph gave $8.2 million to put an initiative on the November ballot that supporters say would lower... + read more

Behind the legislative record of newly chosen Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff is a host of special interests that have funded his campaigns and given him expensive gifts. Last year, for example, the California Dental Association spent $124 to send Huff to a Josh Groban concert, the day after... + read more

Ranked-choice voting was the cure for what ails American politics, boosters said. Now in use in four California cities, this new voting system was supposed to increase voter turnout, stanch the flow of special interest money and encourage high-minded, positive campaigns. But it didn... + read more