Q4 2025 spending on lobbying firms exceeded $91 million

Special interests paid lobbying firms more than $91 million to lobby state government in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to a Capitol Weekly analysis of lobbying firm reports.

As Capitol Weekly always notes in quarterly lobbying reports, that number doesn’t include all of the money spent on lobbying during the fourth quarter of the 2025-26 legislative cycle, as lobbying firm disclosure reports don’t include wages and expenses for in-house lobbyists.

The $91 million represents a 1 percent decrease from the amount spent in the third quarter, after accounting for disclosure amendments. According to updated figures, special interests spent more than $92 million on lobbying firms during the third quarter of the year.

Special interests spent more in the third quarter than any quarter last year.

For all of 2025, “lobbyist employers” as the California Secretary of State calls special interests, spent more than $351 million on lobbying firms, according to disclosures analyzed on Feb. 3.

(Capitol Weekly notes in these quarterly lobbying spending stories when we gathered our data because the filing of subsequent amendments can change totals. We also note that we try at every turn to catch mis-formatted data, to avoid miscounts. Scraping numbers from Cal-Access, however, can be an imperfect process and mis-formatted data isn’t always flagged in spreadsheet calculations. Please contact us if you see any incorrect totals.)

Capitol Weekly’s analysis aggregates the total dollar value of all lobbying payments received by lobbying firms that are registered with the state, as disclosed on Form 625, which is filed quarterly with the SoS.

The Form 625 is only for lobbying firms, which are defined as businesses “compensated to communicate directly with any state, legislative or agency official to influence legislative or administrative action on behalf of a client.”

The top grossing firm for the fourth quarter was Jared Ficker, Cassie Gilson, Jason Kinney, Dustin Moore and Kevin Schmidt’s Axiom Advisors, which reported receiving more than $3.8 million.

Coming in second for October through December was Capitol Advocacy, which reported receiving more than $3.1 million.

No other firms topped $3 million in receipts, but six topped $2 million:

• Actum (more than $2.96 million);
• California Strategies (nearly $2.9 million);
• Platinum Advisors(nearly $2.5 million);
• KP Public Affairs (nearly $2.4 million);
• Townsend Public Affairs (more than $2.09 million); and
• Shaw Yoder Antwih Schmelzer & Lange (more than $2.08 million).

The firms reporting receipts of more than $1 million were:

• Weideman Group(more than $1.8 million);
• Political Solutions(nearly $1.72 million);
• Sloat Higgins Jensen and Associates (nearly $1.67 million);
• Niemela, Pappas and Associates(more than $1.4 million);
• Lang Hansen Giroux & Kidane(nearly $1.34 million);
• Nielsen Merksamer Parrinello Gross & Leoni (more than $1.3 million);
• Deveau Burr Group (nearly $1.27 million);
• Fernandez Jensen Kimmelshue Government Affairs (more than $1.26 million);
• California Advocates (more than $1.064 million); and
• Joe A. Gonsalves & Son (more than $1.007 million).

Seven more firms topped $900,000 (Caliber Strategies, McHugh Koepke Padron Government Relations, Campbell Strategy & Advocacy, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, Nossaman, Aaron Read & Associates and Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck) and five exceeded $800,000 (Carpenter Garcia Sievers, Lighthouse Public Affairs, Arc Strategies, Capitol Advisors Group and Buchalter).

One hundred and sixty-two firms reported receiving six figures or more in payments in Q4. Another 146 firms reported receiving five figures in payments.

For the entirety of 2025, two firms reported receiving more than $12 million: Axiom Advisors (more than $12.5 million) and Capitol Advocacy (more than $12.4 million).

One firm reported receipts of more than $10 million: California Strategies (more than $10.96 million).

Two firms reported payments totaling more than $9 million: Platinum Advisors (more than $9.7 million) and KP Public Affairs (nearly $9.2 million).

Three firms reported receipts of more than $8 million: Townsend Public Affairs (more than $8.88 million), Actum (more than $8.6 million) and Shaw Yoder (more than $8.5 million). One reported payments totaling more than $7 million: Weideman Group (more than $7.6 million).

Five more firms reported more than $5 million in receipts:

• Political Solutions (more than $5.77 million);
• Sloat Higgins (nearly $5.74 million);
• Niemela, Pappas (more than $5.22 million); and
• Nielsen Merksamer (nearly $5.18 million).

An additional four firms reported receipts more than $4 million:

• Deveau Burr (nearly $4.86 million);
• Lang Hansen (nearly $.85 million);
• Fernandez Jensen (more than $4.7 million); and
• Campbell Strategy (more than $4.25 million).

An additional 15 firms reported receipts of more than $3 million, 16 more than $2 million and 41 more than $1 million.

The 89 firms that received more than $1 million over 2025 accounted for 78 percent of the money spent on lobbying firms. The next 186 firms that collected six figures over those nine months accounted for just 21 percent of the total spending on lobbying firms.