SACRAMENTO >> With a little less than a year until the primary in California’s race for governor, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom continues to lead the field in fundraising — and has more cash on hand than the other three Democratic candidates combined, campaign finance reports filed Monday show.
Newsom raised $5,329,682 during the first six months of 2017, while State Treasurer John Chiang raised $2,560,963, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa raised $2,291,747, and former state superintendent of schools Delaine Eastin raised $313,037.
“He’s outperformed all opponents by every metric and measure—small donors, large donors, geographic regions,” said Dan Newman, a Newsom spokesperson.
Among Republicans, businessman John Cox raised $3,205,122, although the vast majority was a $3 million donation from Cox himself. “I’m irrevocably committed to this race,” Cox said in a statement. State Assemblyman Travis Allen raised $78,403 since joining the race last month.
California gubernatorial races are notoriously expensive — the $280 million spent in the 2010 race between Gov. Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman holds the national record for campaign spending in a statewide election.
This race almost surely won’t reach that level, but it is shaping up to be pricey, said Bob Stern, the former president of the Center for Governmental Studies. “The June primary will be very competitive, so raising money early is important,” he said.
All candidates will face off in the June 5 primary, and the top two will go on to the November general election.
As of June 30, Newsom had $16,020,579 cash on hand between two campaign accounts, compared with $8,960,204 for Chiang, $4,476,881 for Villaraigosa, and $106,723 for Eastin. Cox had $2,825,928 cash on hand, and Allen had $77,248.
The fact that Chiang has almost twice Villaraigosa’s cash on hand is especially significant, Stern said, giving the treasurer a better chance to get into the top two slots. Early polling so far has shown Newsom leading and Villaraigosa or Cox in second place.
Villaraigosa’s campaign said they were pleased with the fundraising results, and took a shot at Newsom. “Donors are joining this campaign, and so are tens of thousands of Californians, for a simple reason—we need a governor who listens to everyone, not just another ‘Davos Democrat’ who is the captive of a small group of powerful elites,” said spokeswoman Michelle Jeung.
Eastin’s campaign said that 70 percent of her 1,500 campaign donors in the first six months of the year were women, calling her the only candidate with a majority of female donors.
