Flag of State of California, image by Arseniy45.Special interests paid lobbying firms more than $89 million to lobby state government in the second quarter of 2025, according to a Capitol Weekly analysis of lobbying firm reports.
Image by ohmygoucheSpecial interest groups, or “lobbyist employers” as they’re known in the parlance of the California Secretary of State’s office, paid lobbying firms more than $84 million to lobby members of California’s state government in the third quarter of 2024, the most of any quarter thus far during the 2023-24 legislative cycle, according to a Capitol Weekly analysis of lobbying firm reports.
Image by PeshkovaSpecial interests paid firms more than $77 million to lobby California state government in the third quarter of 2023, according to a Capitol Weekly analysis of lobbying firm reports, representing roughly a 4 percent increase in spending over the second quarter of 2023 and a 9 percent increase over the first quarter.
Lobbying dollars, image by esferaFor the entire first half of 2023 – that is, the first and second quarters combined – special interests paid more than $147 million to lobbying firms, per California Secretary of State disclosures analyzed in mid-August.
The California seal, photo by Cheri Alguire via ShutterstockCapitol Weekly’s analysis found that nearly a third of the money spent on lobbying in the first quarter went to just 14 lobbying firms – the only firms to report receiving more than $1 million each in lobbying payments over the first three months of 2023.