Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/disney-election-spending/)
Mayor Tom Tait earlier this year hoped for a happy ending to the Disney film called Anaheim after resort executives turned back public subsidies saying they favored a cleaner public dialogue. Yet recent campaign finance documents show PACS tied to resort and hotel interests are back playing a nasty brand of political hardball in the race to elect Anaheim’s next mayor.
The Disneyland Resort pumped another $600,000 Wednesday toward influencing the Anaheim City Council election, surpassing its previous spending record with more than $1.5 million spent so far this year.
The Disneyland Resort has spent almost $1 million to influence Anaheim city council campaigns and oppose a minimum wage initiative with three weeks to go before the Nov. 6 election, more than it spent at this point ahead of the 2016 election.
With a week to go until the election, The Walt Disney Company’s spending on Anaheim City Council races has blown past the record it set in 2014 and is approaching the $1-million mark, according to the most recent campaign finance filings.
Anaheim City Council members Kris Murray and Jordan Brandman were the first to announce their support for a deal protecting Disneyland from a ticket tax. They’ve also benefitted the most from the mega-resort’s campaign spending.
In what some say is an all-out effort to save the Anaheim City Council majority, the megaresort has so far doubled what it spent in 2012.
The total amount of independent expenditures in the race for Anaheim City Council is well over $730,000, much more than in 2010.