In our Sunday story, we outlined a system that allows savvy campaign donors to give candidates hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the law typically allows by routing the money through county party central committees – particularly late in an election cycle.
The system was used to route millions of dollars to Assembly and Senate candidates in 2008, in some cases possibly helping tip the scales in some very tight races.
Presumably, these donors aren’t making it rain out of the goodness of their hearts. Most campaign contributors like to give money to support a candidate whose election will ultimately benefit them – either because they agree with their policies, or because maybe someday, that candidate will pay them back with a favor.
So which donors might have scored themselves some brownie points? The list below shows the top 10 donors to county central committees during the last two months of the 2008 election cycle.
Most of the big dogs are associated with organized labor, and most of their money went to Democratic committees. This shouldn’t be a shocker – unions and Democrats go together like Arnold and protein. But the Dems used that money to help pull out some tight races: Alyson Huber in the 10th District to name one.
| Organization | Total |
| Service Employees International Union Local 1000 | $303,500 |
| California State Council of Service Employees | $302,000 |
| Villines for Assembly 2008 | $270,000 |
| San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council | $229,203.96 |
| Political Action for Classified Employee of California School Employees Association | $220,000 |
| Professional Engineers in California Government | $185,900 |
| Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters PAC | $152,500 |
| Northern California Carpenters Regional Council | $150,800 |
| California Correctional Peace Officers Association PAC | $150,000 |
| San Diego Lodging Industry Association PAC | $141,500 |
You can check out our searchable databases to see which committees took in the most money and which candidates cashed in.
Drop by as the week goes on for more details on county-committee giving that we couldn’t fit into the story.
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