The race for OC Supervisor has been one of the most expensive in county history this year, with special interest groups like unions and lobbying organizations spending millions of dollars on two seats for supervisor.
Most of that spending has been focused on the Fifth District, where incumbent Democratic Supervisor Katrina Foley is running for reelection against Assemblywoman Diane Dixon, the Republican challenger.
The Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriff’s political action committee alone has spent over $1.2 million on the race, with just under $1 million going to ads supporting Foley and the rest going toward attack ads on Dixon.
That spending also comes as deputies are awaiting a labor contract after passing on the county supervisors’ offer for a one-year contract with a 3% raise.
Most of Foley’s other support also came from labor unions, with over $1 million combined from the firefighter’s association committee, the OC Employees Association Committee and a committee dubbed the United Domestic Workers of America Independent Expenditure PAC, which is funded by the AFL-CIO.
The OC Employees Association and United Domestic Workers also spent a combined $225,000 on ads attacking Dixon’s candidacy.
Altogether, that’s around $2.5 million of special interest spending aimed at supporting Foley’s reelection aside from her own campaign funds, which she’d spent over $770,000 of as of Oct. 17.
The Democratic Party of Orange County also spent at least $346,000 supporting Foley, according to campaign filings.
The largest supporter of Dixon’s supervisor campaign is the OC Lincoln Club, which has spent around $137,000 on ads supporting her, but spent over $567,000 on ads attacking Foley’s campaign.
Dixon’s efforts to unseat Foley also received over $331,000 of advertising in just the last few weeks from a political action committee dubbed the “Coalition to Restore California’s Middle Class, Including Energy, Manufacturing and Technology Companies Who Produce Gas, Oil, Jobs and Pay Taxes.”
Most of the money to that committee came from several oil companies, including Chevron, which donated $3 million to the PAC.
Altogether, that’s just over $1 million supporting Dixon’s challenge, in addition to the $610,000 her campaign has already spent this year as of Oct. 17.
The Republican Party of Orange County also spent over $246,000 supporting Dixon’s candidacy according to campaign finance filings.
In the Fourth District, Democrat Buena Park Mayor Connor Traut and OC Board of Education Trustee Connor Traut are facing off to replace termed-out Supervisor Doug Chaffee, but most of the spending has gone toward benefiting Traut’s campaign.
The Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriff’s political action committee is also Traut’s biggest supporter, with the group having spent $960,000 advertising him this year.
The Firefighters Association and the OC Employees Association also backed Traut, spending around $800,000 collectively on Traut with most of that money coming from the firefighters.
The Democratic Party of Orange County spent around $158,000 supporting Traut according to campaign filings.
The only big spending to come in Shaw’s support came from the National Association of Realtors Fund, which spent around $102,000 supporting his candidacy.
Traut has repeatedly out-fundraised Shaw as well, spending over $458,000 on his campaign compared to Shaw’s $126,000.
The Republican Party of Orange County hasn’t done much to help out Shaw according to campaign filings, disclosing around $6,000 of spending.
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.
