Everyone knows campaigning is expensive, especially in giant media markets like Los Angeles. Political consultants will suggest spending as much as necessary to win; not exactly rocket science, but still good advice. So, how much is too much? That depends, but we do have an example of a giant disparity which, interestingly enough, is similar to the candidates themselves and the wealth disparity in the United States.
Billionaire developer and L.A. City mayoral candidate Rick Caruso spent* $40,957,547 on his campaign and received 232,490 votes. That’s about $176 per vote.
Caruso totes his business smarts, but since he inherited a lot of his money, maybe he should talk with Ken Mejia about how to get a better cost per vote. Mejia is a CPA, lefty activist, and candidate for L.A. City Controller. He spent $629,107 and received 240,374 votes which is less than $3 per vote. Ouch.
Calpeek would love to know about the conversation Caruso had with his many campaign consultants, after the final set of votes were released. We would spend $176 to be a fly on that wall. If you have any information, please ContactUs@Calpeek.com.
*all expenditure data is as of the last reporting period ending 6/1/22.