Californians had the opportunity to vote on 11 ballot measures determining everything from the state’s fate regarding education funding to the death penalty.
But they didn’t have to make the decision alone. Interest groups and individuals spent millions of dollars trying to persuade voters to vote ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ on the nearly one dozen propositions.
But did it make a difference?
Maplight, a nonpartisan guide to ballot measures, has tracked all the donations given to the 11 Proposition campaigns.
Click on the links to see a breakdown of who funded each Proposition. (The side with more donations is bolded.)
Oppose Support Grand Total Passed? Prop. 30 - Temporary Taxes to Fund State Programs $52,755,441.41 $61,830,717.48 $114,586,158.89 Yes Prop. 31 - State Budget $395,009.59 $4,358,218.34 $4,753,227.93 No Prop. 32 - Political Contributions $68,811,264.19 $59,437,052.82 $128,248,317.01 No Prop. 33 - Auto Insurance Rates $222,785.02 $16,588,381.47 $16,811,166.49 No Prop. 34 - Death Penalty Repeal $359,899.30 $7,024,630.02 $7,384,529.32 No Prop. 35 - Human Trafficking/Sex Offender $3,495,473.59 $3,495,473.59 Yes Prop. 36 - Three Strikes Law $118,695.52 $2,556,542.94 $2,675,238.46 Yes Prop. 37 - Genetically Modified Foods $41,259,949.48 $7,303,695.19 $48,563,644.67 No Prop. 38 - Molly Munger’s Tax Proposal $42,252.31 $47,799,042.34 $47,841,294.65 No Prop. 39 - Multistate Business Tax $45,000.00 $30,149,615.12 $30,194,615.12 Yes Prop. 40 - Redistricting $2,232,937.20 $600,974.93 $2,833,912.13 Yes Grand Total $166,243,234.02 $241,144,344.24 $407,387,578.26
Propositions 30, 35, 36 and 39 passed and had more donations supporting the measure than opposing it, and Propositions 32 and 37 did not pass and had more donations opposing it than supporting it. The remaining five measures 31, 33, 34, 38 and 49 had more donations to the losing side.
Purely looking at the numbers, it is difficult to make a blanket statement that campaign donations win ballot measures.
But what do you think? Tell us in the comments if proposition funding had a large influence on whether a proposition passed or not.
