We already know today’s biggest winners: campaign consultants

Today is Election Day and while we won’t be certain who is moving onto the general until after the polls close this evening, there is one group of people we already know are big winners: the campaign consultants.

Campaign consultants for state-level races have pocketed more than $10.7 million so far this election cycle, according to a Capitol Weekly analysis of expenditure data downloaded last week from the California Secretary of State’s website, Cal-Access.

That was the spending category (as delineated by Form 460 expenditure codes) to receive the most money from the 60 Assembly races, 20 state Senate races and the Proposition 1 ballot measure thus far.

The next two highest categories, unsurprisingly, were TV or cable airtime and production costs ($10.3 million) and campaign literature and mailings ($7.6 million).

Nearly $5 million was spent on fundraising events. Nearly $3.4 million was spent on professional services (including legal and accounting). Nearly $2 million was spent on postage, delivery and messenger services and, separately, on office expenses.

Determining exactly how much individuals and entities made from campaigns can be difficult, as certain expenses, like TV or cable airtime and product costs, involve “pass throughs,” in which a campaign gives a chunk of money to a company to produce commercials and to pay to get them broadcast.

So, for simplicity’s sake, Capitol Weekly focused solely on expenditures specifically coded for campaign consultants for the following analysis – and even that was a bit tricky, as not every campaign logs the names of consultants the same way. (Daniel C. Weitzman’s consulting business was written several different ways: “Daniel C Weitzman LLC,” “Daniel C Weitzman, LLC,” “Daniel C. Weitzman, LLC,” and “Weitzman, Daniel.”)

We should also acknowledge that it’s possible campaigns improperly labelled expenditures as for campaign consultants when in reality they should have been categorized as something else.

In other words, this isn’t an exact science (or really a science at all). Still, this is our best attempt at tallying which campaign consultants have made the most money from state races so far this cycle.

J&Z Strategies out of Los Angeles was far and away the top earner among designated campaign consultants. The firm, founded by Dave Jacobson and Maclen Zilber, earned more than $580,000, just for work categorized as campaign consultants. (Overall, J&Z touched more than $2.5 million in campaign funds (although at least some of that appears as though it could have been pass through dollars).

Only one other firm reportedly earned more than $400,000 for campaign consulting services: Street Level Campaigns, an affiliate of Street Level Strategies, led by President Pat Dennis. Street Level Campaigns earned $470,000 for campaign consulting, according to disclosures.

Just two additional firms reportedly earned more than $300,000 for campaign consulting: The Strategy Group, a Democratic strategy group whose clients include former U.S. President Barack Obama, and the Golden State Strategy Group, a Republican firm led by President Molly A. Parnell. The Strategy Group reportedly earned more than $370,000 while the Golden State Strategy Group more than $314,000.

Six additional firms reportedly earned more than $200,000 for work specifically designated as campaign consulting:

• McKinley Pillows & Associates (more than $295,000)
• Buchanan Enterprises-BLR Fundraising (more than $256,000)
• Pruitt (more than $253,000)
• Overland Strategies (more than $229,000)
• Barkan Strategies (more than $214,000)
• Bertolina & Barnato (more than $210,000)

Thirteen more firms reportedly earned more than $100,000 for work categorized as campaign consultants:

• Capital Development Strategies (more than $186,000)
• Daniel C. Weitzman LLC (more than $184,000)
• Kegeyan-Pappas Consulting (more than $173,000)
• Sarah Kate Levy Consulting (more than $168,000)
• Wendy Warfield & Associates (more than $166,000)
• Yosemite Consulting (more than $163,000)
• Hilltop Public Solutions ($160,000)
• Upland Workshop ($140,000)
• Annie Eagan Consulting (more than $130,000)
• LG Campaigns ($130,000)
• Deboo Communications ($125,000)
• SB Strategies (more than $107,000)

In all, more than 300 individuals and firms were reportedly paid for work specifically designated as campaign consultants so far in the 2023-24 election cycle.