California Senate race: Debate night and corporate cash

The three leading Democrats who want to be a U.S. senator — and who face off tonight in their second televised debate — all say they’re not accepting corporate PAC money so they can show their independence from Big Business.

But what does that actually mean?

CalMatters politics reporter Yue Stella Yu talks to experts and dives into campaign finance records to answer that question.  

Because companies cannot directly give money to federal candidates, they sometimes establish political action committees to advocate for their interests. Rather than being funded by the companies themselves, these corporate PACs collect donations from certain donors, such as the companies’ executives, managers and stockholders (low-level employees are typically not included). 

This election, the top Democratic candidates have, for the most part, stayed true to their pledge — relying more on individual donors. But a CalMatters analysis of campaign finance data compiled by OpenSecrets shows their campaigns continue to accept money from corporate executives and PACs that are run by trade associations and professional organizations, which OpenSecrets calls “business PACs.”

Donors who self-identify as CEOs or hold other executive positions, for example, have given Rep. Adam Schiff’s campaign at least $648,000. Rep. Barbara Lee’s campaign has received at least $204,000 from executive donors and Rep. Katie Porter’s at least $197,000. And a total of 519 business PACs have given money to all three campaigns at some point in the legislators’ congressional careers. 

Some watchdog groups and political science experts say that the rejection of “corporate money” therefore is largely symbolic. But organizations that support the pledge say small steps like these can help build momentum for a campaign finance landscape that involves less corporate money.

For more on corporate PAC money, read Stella’s story.

Speaking of Schiff: As the frontrunner in the polls, he’s coming under some more scrutiny.

Slate is the latest national publication to accuse him of a “sneaky” and “diabolical” campaign strategy by running ads attacking Republican Steve Garvey — and possibly rallying GOP voters around the former baseball star. 

In reality, it’s a tried-and-true gambit in California’s top-two primary system: Democrats elevate a Republican into second place so they can cruise to victory in November in the deep blue state. Republicans have also tried the ploy, but it backfired in a 2022 state Senate race.   

While Schiff’s campaign isn’t up to anything unusual, that isn’t stopping Porter from bashing him for it, or raising campaign money off it, or possibly raising it in tonight’s debate, hosted by KTLA, KRON and other Nexstar Media Group stations and live from San Francisco at 7 p.m.  

Also, the San Francisco Chronicle evaluated Schiff’s plan on housing, and the Los Angeles Times looked into his shift to more progressive positions on criminal justice since his “tough on crime” days as a prosecutor and state legislator during the 1990s. 

• Schiff, to the Times: “Some of the sentencing policies of the ’90s didn’t do much to reduce crime, but they did a lot to increase incarceration. I don’t think that’s the right balance.”

Time to vote: Our comprehensive Voter Guide features what you need to know about the key races on the March 5 ballot, including the U.S. Senate. And as the campaign heats up, keep up with CalMatters coverage. That includes stories that answer common questions from voters. In the latest one, CalMatters Capitol reporter Alexei Koseff explains how to get your ballot counted faster, if that’s your thing. 

An earlier one explained the different rules for voting in the presidential primaries. 

On the subject of money and politics, who were the biggest spenders last year in lobbying the Legislature, governor’s office and state agencies?

CalMatters data reporter Jeremia Kimelman crunched the numbers and here’s what he found: 

• Of the top three spenders, Chevron spent the most cash in 2023. In the final quarter of that year, it reported spending $1.2 million on lobbying. One of its top advocacy goals was to influence a bill that Gov. Gavin Newsom championed and signed last March that authorizes the California Energy Commission to investigate and potentially cap oil industry profits. The Western States Petroleum Association, which came in third, also spent lobbying dollars to influence that same measure. 

• Power and utility companies poured millions of dollars in 2023 towards lobbying, particularly Pacificorp, which spent $5 million and Pacific Gas and Electric, which spent $3.1 million for the whole year. Besides attempting to influence several state agencies, including the Public Utilities Commission, these companies aim to have a sway in electric rates, construction of new facilities and utility-related legislation.

• Last year was a record-breaking year for city and local government lobbying money. Local and regional governments lobby the state for a number of reasons and collectively spent more than $55 million in 2023. The government entity that committed the most in the fourth quarter ($682,000 to be specific) was Orange County, which aimed to influence property tax legislation and the state Department of Veterans Affairs concerning a cemetery. But the entity that spent the most in all of 2023 was the Metropolitan Water District in Los Angeles, which reported that its lobbying expenses exceeded $2 million.

Learn more about what other big lobbying spenders want, including Waymo and McDonald’s, from Jeremia’s story.

Thousands of California fast food workers now have the option to join a brand new union, Alejandra Reyes-Velarde of CalMatters’ California Divide team reports. The California Fast Food Workers Union is affiliated with the large Service Employees International Union, which recently notched a victory by raising fast food workers’ hourly minimum wage to $20. But unlike a traditional union that can negotiate labor contracts, this new union won’t have collective bargaining power. Instead, it will be able to advocate for better and safer working conditions across the industry.

But some say the California Fast Food Workers Union isn’t actually a union. Critics of the organization, such as Employment Policies Institute Managing Director Michael Saltsman, have called the union “fake,” and told Alejandra it is a “face-saving exercise” by the SEIU, as well as a “public relations vehicle.”

For more on the union, read Alejandra’s story.

And speaking of labor (in more ways than one): CalMatters health reporter Kristen Hwang dives into why it’s so hard for midwives to stay in business in California, especially when it comes to serving Medi-Cal patients. A UC San Francisco study, released today, found that outdated licensing requirements, unwieldy state regulations and burdensome insurance policies make it nearly impossible for community midwives to accept Medi-Cal patients.

One Sacramento midwife Kristen spoke to, Madeleine Wisner, said insurance refused to pay two out of every three claims she submitted. When it did pay her, it often took months and insurance on average reimbursed just 17% of her costs. Wisner ended up closing her birth center in October and is planning to relocate to New Zealand. 

Amid a time when hospitals are shutting down their labor and delivery wards and maternal mortality rates in the state are rising, the UCSF report warns that the state must do more to increase the number of community midwives who are Medi-Cal providers. Most of the babies whose births are covered by Medi-Cal are babies of color, and research shows that when midwives care for low-risk patients, rates of cesarean sections and preterm birth decrease. UCSF researchers also found that because community midwives see patients more frequently, they can catch complications early.

To learn more about this issue, read Kristen’s story.

A new federal financial aid form is having major glitches — enough that the University of California and California State University pushed back the deadline for applicants to accept admission offers. 

But some students are facing even more problems with the form. To find out who they are, read the story by CalMatters higher education reporter Mikhail Zinshteyn.