A new analysis shows 98 percent of the money raised from individuals and businesses by California’s two candidates for governor this year comes from donations of $1,000 or more.
“This is not completely shocking,” says Zach Weinstein with the consumer advocacy group CalPIRG.
He says his findings don’t reflect poorly on the candidates so much as they show a broken system.
“The thing that is surprising, though, I think, is the sheer volume,” Weinstein says. “Ninety-eight percent means that there are actually less people giving small donations of $200 or less than there were people giving donations of over $1,000.”
In contrast, Weinstein says a similar analysis of donations to California’s congressional primaries showed that about two-thirds of the money came from large donors.
That could be in part because the contribution limit to California gubernatorial candidates ($27,200) is more than 10 times higher than it is to federal candidates ($2,600).
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