How big money is impacting the LA mayor’s race<\/p>\n
The deadline for the first round of pre-election campaign spending filings was Sep. 24. LAist watchdog correspondent Nick Gerda shares some of the findings.<\/p>\n
A hedge fund manager who wants more bike lanes and a construction workers’ union are the biggest donors in L.A. city elections over the past two months.<\/p>\n
They put a total of $7 million behind City Councilmember Nithya Raman\u2019s run for mayor, according to the latest campaign filings submitted by Thursday to meet a state deadline.<\/p>\n
Aaron Sosnick, a hedge fund founder, and the construction workers union \u2014 the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters \u2014 each gave $3 million to the same committee backing Raman, city filings show. Sosnick gave another $1 million to the pro\u2013Raman political committee of the street-safety group Streets for All.<\/p>\n
Airbnb has pumped in more than $4 million into backing Mayor Karen Bass and three other city candidates. The filings also show the LAPD officers’ union has spent nearly $3 million, money that went to oppose Raman, city attorney candidate Marissa Roy and city council candidate Estuardo Mazariegos, and to support council candidate Tim Gaspar. Most of that Airbnb and police union spending was before the June primary election, though police union spending against Raman has picked up recently.<\/p>\n
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Overall, the filings show Raman\u2019s significant earlier disadvantage in outside dollars<\/a> has narrowed significantly in recent weeks. So far, the amount of ad spending by outside groups for the general election is similar between the two candidates, with a total of $1.57 million supporting Bass and against Raman, versus $1.53 million supporting Raman and against Bass. Those groups still have millions of donor dollars on hand for future ads.<\/p>\n Ballots are set to start hitting voters\u2019 mailboxes by the week of Oct. 5.<\/p>\n What to know about the mayor\u2019s race<\/p>\n Sosnick runs the New York-based hedge fund A.R.T. Advisors, which uses computer programs to quickly buy and sell stock, to make money from short-term price changes. He is based in Reno, according to campaign filings, and splits his time between New York and L.A.\u2019s Los Feliz neighborhood, according to Michael Schneider, Streets for All\u2019s founder<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sosnick has been a major donor to prior streets-focused campaigns in L.A., including 2024\u2019s Measure HLA. That voter-approved initiative requires the city to add planned bike lanes, bus lanes and pedestrian upgrades when it repaves major streets.<\/p>\n Two years after voters approved it, the city had completed only about 300 feet of HLA improvements as of March, Streetsblog L.A. reported at the time<\/a>. The city paused some repaving and shifted to smaller repairs that stay under the measure’s trigger, Streetsblog reported.<\/p>\n The construction workers union \u2014 which has said<\/a> most of its nearly 100,000 members are in Southern California \u2014 endorsed Bass in 2022, before switching to Raman in August. The union broke with Bass<\/a> over her affordable-housing directive, ED1, which doesn’t require union wages.<\/p>\n Another donor to pro-Raman ads, through the Streets for All committee, is real estate developer Todd Wexman, who gave $50,000<\/a>. Last year the state issued a $2.3 million wage<\/a> theft fine to him and other developers over allegations about 124 construction workers.<\/p>\n The LAPD officers’ union has put more than $2 million into groups opposing Raman. A recent ad funded by the union highlights Raman\u2019s remarks<\/a> about opposing a city ban on homeless encampments near schools. In the ad, Raman is shown saying she doesn\u2019t “think a kid\u2019s gonna be safer because a tent is 500 feet away from a school.”<\/p>\n The police union committee also received $525,000 from Douglas Emmett Inc., the landlord behind the largest attempted eviction<\/a> from rent-controlled housing in the city in decades. The city declined to legally intervene<\/a> on behalf of the renters, who ended up suing and winning a 2024 court ruling<\/a> that found the evictions were illegal.<\/p>\n Airbnb has given more than $4 million to groups backing Bass, city attorney candidate John McKinney and City Council candidates Jose Ugarte and Gaspar. The city attorney’s office has a current lawsuit<\/a> against Airbnb over alleged price gouging after the January 2025 fires. Whoever wins in November will inherit the case. This year, Bass advanced a proposal<\/a> backed by Airbnb to relax city regulations by letting Airbnb hosts rent out second homes and investment properties through 2028.<\/p>\n Dodger Stadium parking-lot co-owner Frank McCourt’s real estate firm also gave $25,000 to a group backing Bass. McCourt needs approvals from the Metro board, which Bass chairs, for a proposed gondola project.<\/p>\n Much of Bass’ other outside support comes from unions, including the SEIU union that represents most city government staff, whose pay is negotiated by the mayor and approved by the city council.<\/p>\n City attorney<\/p>\n Beyond $2 million from an Airbnb-backed committee supporting McKinney, the police union\u2019s committee has spent $357,000 against city attorney candidate Roy.<\/p>\n Smart Justice California, a criminal-justice-reform advocacy group that wants to reduce incarceration, and a group of trial lawyers are major backers of a committee supporting Roy. The city attorney oversees the city\u2019s misdemeanor prosecutions and defends the city against lawsuits, including those brought by plaintiffs’ firms.<\/p>\n City Council: Gaspar and Ugarte far ahead in outside money<\/p>\n In Council District 3, Gaspar\u2019s biggest outside supporters include about $550,000 from an Airbnb-backed group, around $230,000 from a major association for apartment landlords and $136,000 from the police union. His opponent, Barri Worth Girvan, has received a much smaller amount of outside backing, largely from unions, including one that represents construction workers.<\/p>\n In Council District 9, outside spending for Ugarte includes about $300,000 by Airbnb and about $230,000 by the landlords association. Among their many responsibilities, the city council votes on rent rules.<\/p>\n Ugarte\u2019s opponent, Estuardo Mazariegos, has received much less outside support, largely from the main union for L.A. Unified School District teachers and a tenant organizing group known as ACCE.<\/p>\n How the biggest donations flow<\/p>\n Direct giving to the candidates\u2019 campaigns is legally restricted to $1,800 per donor each election cycle for L.A. mayor and city attorney, and $1,000 for city council. So the biggest donors instead spend through \u201cindependent expenditure\u201d committees, or \u201cIEs.\u201d Donors can give unlimited amounts to these committees, as long as the spending isn’t coordinated with the candidates’ campaigns.<\/p>\n That IE money often flows through multiple committees \u2014 many of which combine money meant for candidates in multiple races \u2014 on its way to election ads, which can make the money hard for the public to easily track.<\/p>\n The general election will take place Nov. 3.<\/p>\n How to reach me<\/p>\n If you have a tip, you can reach me on Signal. 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