Corrected: L.A. mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti pulled in more money than rival Wendy Greuel over the most recent four-week campaign reporting period and also finished out the reporting period with lots more cash on hand for the remaining days of the campaign, the city ethics commission reported.
Garcetti collected $1.65 million to Greuel's $1 million, a sum that included $100,000 she loaned to her campaign. Over the course of the mayor's race, Garcetti has collected $7.4 million, while Greuel has collected $6.7 million.
Garcetti's committee has more than $2 million in the bank, according to the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission. Gruel's campaign, which has invested heavily in several TV ads, has about one-tenth of that amount.
Independent committees, which can collect and spend unlimited amounts, have spent $4.5 million on Greuel's behalf, and just over $1 million dollars for Garcetti.
Combined, contributions to candidates in city races have topped $29 million dollars. Another $9 million has been spent by independent committees, which is contributing to some lopsided totals in council runoffs.
About $2.2 million has been spent by independent committees to back three council runoff candidates who are supported by the same employee unions that are backing Greuel's mayoral bid.
In Council District 1, covering a swath from Northeast LA to Pico-Union, former state legislator Gilbert Cedillo has been the beneficiary of more than $600,000 in independent committee spending. Cedillo and Jose Gardea, chief of staff to the current district councilman Ed Reyes, each have raised about a half-million dollars for their own campaigns.
In Council District 9, including South Los Angeles, State Senator Curren Price has been the beneficiary of $800,000 spent on his behalf by independent committees. That outstrips the $442,000 he has raised for his own campaign and the $290,000 that his opponent, former council staffer Ana Cubas, has collected.
In the Hollywood area District 13, indpendent commitees have spent $500,000 in support of former public works commissioner John Choi. Choi's own campaign has raised about the same amount, while his rival Mitch O'Farrell, a former council aide to Garcetti, has raised $267,000.
Record spending by independent political action committees in the mayor's race and the three council runoffs has run so high that it triggered a rule lifting the ceiling on spending by candidates' own campaign committees.
In the City Attorney race, the challenger, former assemblyman Michael Feuer, has outraised incumbent Carmen Trutanich by about two-to-one. In the open race for City Controller, Councilman Dennis Zine has raised twice the money of attorney Ron Galperin.
In an earlier version of this story, KPCC mistakenly reported that Greuel had collected $1 million more than Garcetti since the start of the mayor's race. That report was based on incomplete data on the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission website, which delayed posting Garcetti's most recent report, which put him ahead of Greuel. KPCC regrets the error.
