LOS ANGELES – One day before the special election for Council District 6, the city’s Ethics Commission announced Monday the expenditure ceiling for the race has been lifted.
City law limits the total amount of expenditures that may be made by candidates who participate in the city’s matching funds program. The expenditure ceiling in a particular race is lifted and no longer applies when a non-participating candidate in the race exceeds the expenditure ceiling or when independent expenditures in the race exceed a certain threshold.
For the CD 6 primary election, the expenditure ceiling was $618,000 and the independent expenditure threshold is $99,000. The expenditure ceiling was lifted in the special election because independent expenditures exceeded the threshold, according to a statement from the city’s Ethics Commission.
The commission defines an independent expenditure as a payment made in connection with a communication advocating the nomination, election or defeat of a candidate, but not made at the behest or in cooperation with the affected candidate.
The seven candidates appearing on the ballot are Marisa Alcaraz, Rose Grigoryan, Issac Kim, Imelda Padilla, Marco Santana, Antoinette Scully and Douglas Sierra.
Alcaraz, Padilla and Santana reported spending the most on their campaigns — $167,483, $81,311 and $196,135, respectively. Grigoryan, Kim, Scully and Sierra each reported spending less than $25,000.
The data reported was last updated in March, according to the Ethics Commission. For election totals in the special election for CD 6, visit https://bit.ly/3ZDmBUX.