SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline) – As Novembers nears, Democratic incumbents in California have stockpiled millions of dollars – funds they can save for future elections as their Republican opponents fail to compete financially.
New campaign finance reports became available Monday.
As of Sept. 30, Gov. Jerry Brown had more than $23 million in his war chest, raising more than $7 million in contributions since January.
Conversely, his GOP rival, businessman Neel Kashkari, had less than $700,000 cash on hand at the end of the reporting period. In the last nine months, Kashkari has raised more than $5.5 million.
In the other state races, Attorney General Kamala Harris has padded her war chest with more than $3.6 million in available funds – funds she could possibly use to run for governor in four years.
From Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, she raked in more than $1.3 million in contributions and has spent more than $800,000.
Her opponent, Republican attorney Ron Gold, raised less than $95,000 in that same time span, campaign finance records show.
California Controller John Chiang, who is running for treasurer, has more than $3 million in his war chest, while Republican candidate, Greg Conlon, has less than $4,000.
Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom has armed himself with more than $2.5 million cash on hand heading into the final month of the election cycle. The Republican candidate, Ron Nehring, has around $20,000 cash on hand, campaign finance reports show.
In the contest for secretary of state, Democrat Alex Padilla has raised more than $1.9 million since January, spent $2.4 million and has more than $410,000 remaining in her war chest.
Republican secretary of state candidate Pete Peterson raised a little less than $135,000 in that time span and had around $52,000 remaining in his war chest as of Sept. 30.
Reach David Yates at elections@legalnewsline.com
Calif. Democrats continue to dominate GOP opponents financially in statewide elections
