{"id":279433,"date":"2026-04-22T00:42:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T00:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/279433\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T00:42:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T00:42:21","slug":"spending-limits-tied-to-missing-statements-in-california-voter-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/279433\/","title":{"rendered":"Spending limits tied to missing statements in California voter guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

All candidates are listed, but not all choose to include statements.<\/p>\n

As California\u2019s June primary election approaches in six weeks, voter information guides are beginning to arrive in mailboxes, but some candidates for governor are missing a key feature.<\/p>\n

Multiple candidates for governor do not have statements listed in the statewide voter information guide, according to state officials. While all candidates appear in the guide, submitting a candidate statement is optional, and comes with conditions.<\/p>\n

County and state election offices are preparing and distributing materials ahead of the election. Sacramento County voters will receive two guides unless they opt for online delivery: one with local election details and another from the state covering statewide races.<\/p>\n

Candidates who want to include a statement in the guide must agree to voluntary campaign spending limits<\/a>. For gubernatorial candidates, that means spending no more than $11,767,000 for the primary and staying under $19,611,000 for the general election.<\/p>\n

Those who accept the limits can then pay to include a statement in the guide sent to registered voters statewide.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, all they can do is make those spending limits voluntary, and so one incentive to accept it is inclusion of that statement in the ballot guide that goes to every registered voter,\u201d legislative analyst Chris Micheli said.<\/p>\n

The limits stem from rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court, which determined mandatory spending caps violate First Amendment free speech protections.<\/p>\n

Even for candidates who qualify, including a statement isn\u2019t free. According to Secretary of State guidelines<\/a>, statements for the primary cost $25 per word for up to 250 words.<\/p>\n

While the guide provides a list of all candidates, Micheli said voters may need to do additional research to learn more about their positions.<\/p>\n

\u201cVoters will want to look at the individual candidates\u2019 websites, and they have not only thorough information about the candidate\u2019s background, but most of them have policy statements and even specific positions on different public policy issues facing California\u2019s voters,\u201d Micheli said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The state is currently mailing out voter guides, and in Sacramento County, officials said distribution will begin Friday.<\/p>\n

WATCH ALSO: California governor race shifts after Yee exit and new polling results<\/a><\/p>\n

ABC10: Watch, Download, Read<\/p>\n


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\n 12 \n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All candidates are listed, but not all choose to include statements. As California\u2019s June primary election approaches in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-279433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}