Is LA Voting with its Wallet? 

George Gascon is the current Los Angeles District Attorney and he is running for re-election.

Gascon has the least amount of campaign cash available now, six weeks before the March primary vote.

In a field of ten main candidates that is not at all a good place for an incumbent office holder to be.

According to campaign finance reports filed yesterday, the Gascon campaign has about $21,000 in the bank.  

For comparison, when he ran in 2020, he raised and spent $3 million dollars prior to the primary and about $12.5 million in total to defeat Jackie Lacey.

Oops.

Note – due to the relatively early primary, the campaign finance filing dates are a bit odd.  What had to be filed yesterday covers only money in/money out since January 1.  The “all of 2023” filing is not due until January 31.  However, each of the current filings have “beginning balance” listings, which is how much money the campaign had on hand on Dec. 31, 2023.  The key issue with that gap is that who made donations between July 1 and Dec. 31 2023 does not have to be reported until next week.  Oh, and all of the numbers below are rounded.

Gone, it appears, from Gascon’s contributor list are the big Hollywood and Silicon Valley and George Soros-type names that fueled his 2020 campaign.

Where did they go? In other words, where is the white woke west side bet being placed?

While his 2023 contributor list is not yet available, the amount raised by Jeff Chemerinsky – dubbed “Gascon-lite” by candidate Judge Debra Archuleta and “mini-Gascon” by candidate Deputy District Attorney Eric Siddall – shows that he is most likely where that money has gone.

Chemerinsky has $535,000 in campaign cash in the bank, 25 times what Gascon has. For much of last year, the progressive mob in LA appeared to be split between backing a weak Gascon or a more presentable version of him in Chemerinsky and it appears that sometime in late 2023 the mob jumped off of the Gascon ship.

Chemerinsky, son of noted lefty loony, erstwhile Gascon ally, and Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, reported having $532,000 as of Dec. 31, raised $67,000 thus far in January and spent $63,000.

But Chemerinsky does not have the most money of the candidates – that honor goes to Nathan Hochman who has $810,000 in the bank.  Hochman, who already has ads appearing on Los Angeles television stations, started the year with $1,045,000, raised $211,000 in January, and spent $446,000 (the ads mostly.)

In third place in the fundraising race was Deputy District Attorney Jon Hatami, who started the year with $391,000, raised $19,000, and spent $27,000, leaving him with $379,000 available.

Following Hatami is Deputy District Attorney John McKinney who started the year with $160,000, raised $21,000, and spent $31,000, leaving him with $149,000.

Siddall and Archuleta both have about $100,000 currently on hand, retired Judge David Milton has $80,000, Judge Craig Mitchell has $78,000, and Deputy District Attorney Maria Ramirez has $30,000.

Gascon’s fundraising numbers are like his poll numbers – abysmal for him but great for the residents of Los Angeles County.