Campaign Finance: The Rising Cost of Winning Votes
The Public Press partnered with the TV Archive, a project of the San Francisco-based Internet Archive, to examine the facts, half-truths and misstatements that aired before November 2015’s pivotal election. Perhaps surprisingly in our tech-soaked city, political campaigns are still investing heavily in persuading voters on television, and investing in savvy national campaign consultants. At the same time, TV stations’ news programs devoted just a few seconds to independent coverage of the elections for each minute of political advertising.
Local tech and real estate interests take sides in City Hall, leading to record-breaking election spending
San Francisco last year saw a high-water mark for spending on elections, with nearly $28 million flowing into slickly produced campaigns that flooded the airwaves and filled mailboxes with questionable claims about ballot measures and candidates.
But the money was not evenly distributed. Airbnb, the short-term rental startup, crushed a proposal to regulate its industry, spending a whopping $9 million. The company’s efforts were endorsed by Mayor Ed Lee, whose allied campaigns for other issues and candidates dominated almost every race they invested in.
The Public Press partnered with the TV Archive, a project of the San Francisco-based Internet Archive, to examine the facts, half-truths and misstatements that aired before November 2015’s pivotal election. Perhaps surprisingly in our tech-soaked city, political campaigns are still investing heavily in persuading voters on television, and investing in savvy national campaign consultants. At the same time, TV stations’ news programs devoted just a few seconds to independent coverage of the elections for each minute of political advertising.
The ever-increasing involvement of moneyed interests worries ethics experts and has spurred reforms to rein in fundraising by lobbyists. While emblematic of the threat of corporate influence peddling in City Hall, lobbyists themselves raise comparatively little, and limiting their involvement would only scratch the surface of the spending expected in contests in 2016 and beyond.
Extra: Public Press project editor Angela Woodall spoke with KALW’s Ben Trefny about this investigation. Listen to the interview from Aug 15, 2016.).
| ABOUT THIS REPORTING PROJECT |
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The Public Press compiled campaign finance records to show a pattern of massive spending by big businesses and allies of Mayor Ed Lee. Our reporters also logged and evaluated the claims of hours of political ads and TV news coverage from the 2015 elections in collaboration with the TV Archive, a project of the Internet Archive. REPORTING: Angela Woodall, Michael Stoll, Sara Bloomberg, Meka Boyle, Cody Wright, Dayvon Dunaway | PROJECT EDITORS: Noah Arroyo, Michael Winter | DATA GRAPHICS: Amanda Hickman | DIRECTOR OF DESIGN: Erika Rae Lawson | PHOTOGRAPHY: Steve Rhodes, Hyunha Kim | ILLUSTRATIONS: Anna Vignet | ONLINE: John Angelico THIS PROJECT WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY GRANTS FROM THE CRAIGSLIST CHARITABLE FUND, THE FUND FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM AND DONATIONS BY PUBLIC PRESS MEMBERS. |