Image by DesignRageSpecial interests, or as the California Secretary of State calls them “lobbyist employers,” paid lobbying firms more than $66 million to lobby state government in the first quarter of 2025, according to a Capitol Weekly analysis of lobbying firm reports.
Image by DeagreezSpecial interest groups paid contract lobbying firms more than $81.397 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, the third highest quarter during California’s 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.