In the race for Los Angeles District Attorney, one candidate is raising far more donations than the other

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Millions of dollars have been raised in this year’s race for Los Angeles District Attorney – but so far the vast majority of it has been raised in support of just one candidate.

Nathan Hochman, a criminal defense attorney and former federal prosecutor who is challenging incumbent George Gascón for the seat, has raised nearly $3.9 million for his campaign as of Sept. 16. That’s more than five times more than Gascón, whose fundraising totals about $678,000.

Independent groups not affiliated with any official campaign have spent $1.1 million to support Hochman. There has been no independent spending to date in support of Gascón.

We’ll break down how we found these numbers and what they actually tell us. But first, let’s back up.

Why is the election of district attorney such a big deal?

Voters have the choice between two competing visions of criminal justice in Los Angeles County.

Gascon was elected district attorney in 2020 on a promise to work to end decades of mass incarceration and create a fairer criminal justice system. Since taking office, he has stopped prosecuting many misdemeanors and pushed for tougher penalties for other crimes.

But the rise in property crimes and viral videos of blitz burglaries have made public safety a major issue this election. Recent polls show that public support for Gascón’s approach has waned – not just in Los Angeles County, but also in other cities that have elected similarly progressive district attorneys.

Hochman has promised to reverse some of Gascón’s policies. The November election will show whether Los Angeles voters want that too.

Now let’s look at the money. Since this is an LA County office, all campaign finance information can be found on the LA County Registrar’s website.

How much money did each candidate raise?

Our results: We added the data for Gascón and Hochman back to 2023, when they first began raising money for their respective campaigns. As of September 16, Gascón raised a total of $678,784. and Hochman raised $3,854,313.

This tells you: These funds, which can be found by searching the documents of both candidates, Here And Here – are the engines that keep campaigns running. They pay staff, buy ads, cover travel expenses, and more. The sheer amount of money raised isn’t all that matters, but the more money a candidate has, the better he can present his name and message to voters.

In 2020, when Gascón first ran for Los Angeles District Attorney against incumbent Jackie Lacey, the funding gap was not as large, with Gascón raising about $1.3 million while Lacey raised just $1.6 million.

How much money came from inside and outside LA County?

What the numbers say: This campaign could influence elections in other counties where there are similar tensions over public safety and criminal justice, so it is likely to attract money from outside Los Angeles County. These numbers can help you gauge how much outside interest there is in a campaign and the extent to which it supports the campaign. They can also provide clues about what a candidate’s local support looks like.

Our results: Take a look Here And Hereand if we extract the Los Angeles County zip codes from the data, we see that as of September 10, about $381,000 of Gascón’s funds – or 57% of his total assets – came from Los Angeles County. Of the rest of Gascón’s money, about 23% of his total funds came from Bay Area counties, and another 8% came from outside California.

For Hochman, this amount was approximately $3.2 million, or 83% of his total assets.

(The rest of the totals for each candidate are from other counties in northern, southern and central California, along with non-ZIP code contributions.)

Where do the independent editions come from?

This tells you: Who is willing to spend a lot of money to support a candidate? There are limits on the donations candidates can raise – for this particular campaign, the maximum donation amount is $9,000 per donor. However, there are no donation limits for independent groups that want to support or oppose a candidate, as long as they are not affiliated with an official campaign.

Our results: A closer look at the independent expenditure (by looking at Here And Here and filtering of independent committee spending in the 2024 elections), a few things have stood out:

• Two independent committees spent a total of $366,000 to oppose Gascón:
  • Working Families, First Responders and Small Businesses for a Safer LA County Endorse Hochman for 2024 District Attorney, Sponsored by Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs
  • Residents, small businesses and public safety workers for safer and cleaner neighborhoods oppose the election of Nithya Raman for City Council 2024, sponsored by the Los Angeles Police Protective League
• Two independent committees spent a combined $1 million to support Hochman – the Los Angeles County Deserves Better Committee, created primarily to support Nathan Hochman in the 2024 district attorney election, spent more than $846,000, and the Working Families, First Responders and Small Business Committee spent more than $285,000.
• So far, no funds have been raised or spent independently to support Gascón in this electoral cycle.

Will this spending influence voters?

This tells you: The data we’ve examined so far tells us how much financial power these campaigns have and who is funding them. You can also think of campaign contributions as silent support for candidates. Someone may not put a sign on their lawn, but they may write a check to support a candidate. If you value their opinion, it can help you decide your own vote.

Our results:

• The LA Police Protective League and the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs sponsored committees that spent a total of $366,000 to fight Gascón.
• Other Hochman supporters include Rick Caruso, a former Los Angeles mayoral candidate. And Billionaire and developer (the donated $250,000 to an independent committee supporting Hochman), businessman Alex Von Fürstenberg, son of fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg (he donated $9,000 to the campaign and $30,000 in independent expenses) and Jerry Greenberg, The CEO of Sushi Nozawa (who donated a total of $125,000) over two independent committees).
• Hochman’s backers include people from the real estate, corporate and law enforcement industries, while Gascón’s donors include several labor unions.
• Gascón’s well-known supporters include actress Jane Fonda (who donated $1,000), musician John Legend (who donated $5,000) and Gil Garcetti, former LA District Attorney (who donated $500).

What is the conclusion?

It’s clear that Hochman’s campaign has a big advantage over Gascón’s so far when considering various spending measures – the amount of money raised, the amount raised in Los Angeles County and independent spending.

Deep-pocketed business leaders and law enforcement unions are spending huge sums to support Hochman (or oppose Gascón). Gascón is trailing by a wide margin and is not receiving nearly the same level of financial support as he did in 2020.

This may or may not influence your vote, but it does provide a few additional perspectives to help you understand this race and other elections that may be on your ballot.

If you want to learn more about this race, check out these resources from LAist: Breakdown of the candidates’ visions by Civics and Democracy correspondent Frank Stoltze, our Podcast series about Gascón and our Voter Game Plan Guide.

LAist data journalist Maloy Moore contributed to this story.

This series is supported by the American Press Institute.