The California Fair Political Practices Commission has started publishing "top ten" lists, as if they have nothing better to do. On second thought I guess having them grind their data is a better thing than terrifying campaign treasurers. In March they published a list of the "top ten" slate mailers in California, all political parties, by gross revenue. But they used old data from 2007/2008. Two of my Landslide Communications slate mailers made the top ten for the whole state. Not bad. My friend Tim Carey’s slate mailer was listed number one in gross revenue. Not bad. I look forward to the statistics this next time around, and as Carey and I agreed yesterday, there is nothing wrong with a little healthy competition. Though I think my slates win more elections, and I’m going to ask the FPPC to start sorting through the data that way.
In any event, the most recent top ten list from the FPPC are the top recipients of Independent Expenditure money in legislative races, and it comes as no surprise to seasoned observers that Democrats dominate the money in California elections. Number one was Orange County Democrat Lou Correa, who benefited from almost $2,400,000 in IEs in the 34th State Senate district race in 2006. In order after Correa where Democrat Manual Perez for 80th AD in 2008 ($1,933,000), Democrat John Dutra, who lost his race for 10th State Senate in 2006 ($1,778,336), and finally Republican Tony Strickland, who benefited from almost $1,680,000 in IEs for his successful 19th Senate District race in 2008. With just one exception, the rest of the top ten were all Democrats, and they all won their elections. You can see the list at: http://www.fppc.ca.gov/index.php?id=252.
Its good to know that Republicans can top at least some FPPC lists in California, however, the challenge for us is really in winning more races, and when we can have candidates who can attract more IE spending, the likelihood is that we will start winning more.