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This is an excerpt from Make It Make Sense , our pop-up newsletter on the 2024 election. If you want weekly updates through September on following the money this election season, sign up here . Millions of dollars have been raised in this year’s race for Los Angeles County district attorney — but so far, the vast majority of it has been gathered in support of just one of the candidates.
Nathan Hochman, the criminal defense attorney and former federal prosecutor who is challenging incumbent George Gascón for the seat, has raised nearly $3.9 million for his campaign as of Sept. 16.
That’s over five times more than Gascón, whose fundraising stands at around $678,000. Independent groups — those that aren’t affiliated with an official campaign — have spent $1.1 million to support Hochman.
So far, there’s been no independent spending to support Gascón. We’ll break down how we found these numbers and what they actually tell us. But first, let’s back up.
Voters are choosing between two competing visions of criminal justice in L.A. County.
Gascón was elected district attorney in 2020 on his promises to work toward ending decades of mass incarceration and create a fairer criminal justice system. Since taking office, he’s stopped prosecuting many misdemeanors and seeking sentencing enhancements for other crimes. But increases in property crime and viral videos of smash-and-grab-style robberies have made public safety a major talking point of this election.
Recent polling shows that public support for Gascón’s approach has waned — not just in L.A. County, but also in other cities that elected similarly progressive district attorneys.
Hochman has vowed to reverse some of Gascón’s policies. The November election will be a test of whether L.A.
voters want that, too. Now, let’s take a look at the money. Because this is an L.
A. County office, all the campaign finance information can be found on the L.A.
County registrar’s website . What we found: We added up the data for Gascón and Hochman going back to 2023, when they first started raising money for their respective campaigns. As of Sept.
16, Gascón raised a total of $678,784, and Hochman raised $3,854,313. What this tells you: These funds — which can be found by searching both candidates’ records here and here — are the engines that keep campaigns going. They pay staff, they buy ads, they cover travel expenses, and a lot more.
The sheer amount of money raised isn’t all that matters, but the more funding a candidate has, the more ability they have to get their name and message in front of voters. In 2020, when Gascón first ran for L.A.
County district attorney against incumbent Jackie Lacey, the gap between funding totals was not so wide. Back then, Gascón raised about $1.3 million against Lacey’s $1.
6 million. What the numbers tell you: This race could influence elections in other counties that face similar tensions over public safety and criminal justice, so it’s likely attracting money from outside L.A County.
These numbers can help you gauge how much outside interest there is in a race and to what degree it’s powering the campaigns. It can also hint at what a candidate’s local support looks like. What we found: Taking a look here and here , and extracting L.
A. County ZIP codes from the data, we see that as of Sept. 10, about $381,000 of Gascón’s funds — or 57% of his total — came from L.
A. County. Of the rest of Gascón’s money, about 23% of his total funds came from Bay Area counties and another 8% came from outside California.
For Hochman, that number was about $3.2 million, or 83% of his total funds. (Other counties in northern, southern and central California make up the rest of the totals for each candidate, along with contributions that didn't include a ZIP code.
) What this tells you: Who’s willing to spend big to back a candidate? Money raised by candidates comes with restrictions — a maximum of $9,000 per donor for this particular race. But there are no contribution limits for independent groups that want to support or oppose a candidate, as long as they’re not affiliated with an official campaign. What we found: When we took a closer look at independent spending (by looking here and here and filtering for independent committee spending in the 2024 elections), a few things stuck out: What this tells you: The data we’ve been looking at so far tell us how much financial power these campaigns have and who’s fueling it.
You can also think of campaign contributions as quiet endorsements for candidates. Someone may not be putting up a lawn sign, for example, but they are writing a check to support a candidate. If their opinion matters to you, it can help you decide your own vote.
What we found: It’s clear that Hochman’s campaign has a large advantage over Gascón’s so far when focusing on several different spending measures — the amount of money raised, the amount raised from within L.A. County, and independent spending.
Deep-pocketed business leaders and law enforcement unions are spending big to back Hochman (or to oppose Gascón). Gascón is trailing by a wide margin and isn’t receiving nearly the same amount of financial support he had back in 2020. This may or may not affect how you vote.
But it provides a few more dimensions to help you understand this race and others you see on your ballot. If you want more on this race, check out these resources from LAist: This breakdown of the candidates' visions from Civics and Democracy Correspondent Frank Stoltze, our podcast series on Gascón and our Voter Game Plan guide . LAist data journalist Maloy Moore contributed to this story.
This series is supported by the American Press Institute..
