CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SACRAMENTO : Study of Campaign Funding

Democrats on average take more money from special interests than Republicans, but both parties “are equally beholden to special interests,” a consumer and environmental advocacy group says. The California Public Interest Research Group has released a study of last year’s campaign contributions to legislators, which concludes that only 2% of their contributions were under $100. Researcher Mary Raftery said that total was down from 4% in 1987, the last non-election year, despite the fact that voters in 1988 had approved two initiatives aimed at curbing special-interest contributions. “In a year in which no legislators were up for election, state senators raised an average of $140,000 and Assembly members raised $97,000 each, totaling over $13 million in six months,” she said.