Big Money Report

The latest campaign report came online this week. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s going on with money:

So far, Pacific Gas & Electric, Sempra, and Southern Cal Edison have spent $29,564,547.87 on defeating Prop. 7, the clean and renewable energy initiative. Let’s see where their money is going:

1. $547,160 on polling since June 10th. $300,600 of that was spent between October 1st and October 18th. Fascinating that the 3 Big Utilities are spending that much on polling but they have yet to release a poll.
2. $25,300,000 on television and radio. The Big Utilities must believe that they will win the hearts and minds of voters through sheer inundation (brainwashing).
3. $1,075,150 on buying up space on slate mailers. Industries like tobacco and oil are notorious for using slate mailers to trick people into voting against measures that would regulate those industries. Unsurprisingly, the Big Utilities are no different.
4. $192,562.66 on a republican political consulting firm that uses fuzzy math to help giant industries get voters to oppose measures that regulate their industries. (See a pattern here?)
   

That brings us to $27,114,872.66 on message management. But wait, there’s more! I found this little gem in the campaign’s online filings:

5. $16,551.34 – that’s how much Brian Leubitz, the administrator of the California political blog http://www.calitics.com/, has been paid by PG&E, Southern Cal Edison, and Sempra to run the Facebook page called “Join Environmentalists in Opposing Prop 7.” I thought about leaving a comment on its wall recommending a slight name change (something like “Join Environmentalists Who Sell out to PG&E in Opposing Prop 7) but interestingly, Brian took down the whole wall and removed the ability to comment when someone mentioned that Brian is paid by the Big Utilities to run that facebook page.

With just over a week until the election, this is the Big Utilities current balance sheet: $364,316 cash on hand, and $155,382 in outstanding debt. You can go through the campaign filings yourself here.