Glendale City Council race sees unprecedented outside spending
Just days before Glendale voters would cast their ballots for the local City Council race, Chevron Corp. dropped $25,000 into an independent committee supporting first-time council candidate Ardy Kassakhian.
About a month prior, a charter schools PAC gave $25,000 to the same independent committee.
Kassakhian, who has served as the city’s clerk since 2005, denied any connection with the fossil-fuel industry or charter schools.
He’s a member of the Glendale Teacher’s Assn., which endorsed him, and says he considers himself an advocate for environmental issues. A local grassroots environmental organization and the Sierra Club also endorsed Kassakhian last month. .
The funds came by way of independent expenditures, which can raise and spend unlimited money on communications — such as mailers and online ads — that support or oppose a candidate. Campaigns are barred from consulting or coordinating with the committees making the expenditures.
“[These groups] are running parallel efforts, that have nothing to do with my campaign — efforts that I vehemently denounce and am in no way associated with,” said Kassakhian, who had more than $146,000 spent on his behalf as of Feb. 27 — a figure that dwarfed what other candidates received.
“There’s only one interest group that matters to me, and those are the people who live in the city,” Kassakhian added.
This election cycle has seen an unusually large influx of independent expenditures, often called outside money, according to several longtime city officials.
In total, independent committees spent roughly $275,000 during the election cycle, according to public disclosure forms, as of Friday evening. There are three seats up for election, with two incumbents running. That means that there will be at least one new face on the dais following Tuesday’s election.
Los Angeles City Council races this election cycle also saw an infusion of outside money, where independent expenditure committees shelled out more than $1.2 million.
With local races consolidated with the state primary for the first time, more voters are expected to head to the polls — meaning local candidates need to cut through more noise and partisanship than previous elections.
Where the money’s coming from
Current Glendale City Council members Vartan Gharpetian and Paula Devine — who are both up for reelection — said the amount of independent expenditures in the council race this year was unprecedented.
“Never in the history of the city has this much money come in,” Gharpetian said. “So this money is pouring in because of the new candidates, and we have to understand why.”
Both incumbents were leading beneficiaries of independent committee spending.
Apartment owner and Realtor interests spent more than $37,000 in support of Gharpetian. The same groups shelled out nearly $28,000 for Devine.
Unite Here 11, a union for hotel workers and janitors, spent more than $22,000 opposing Gharpetian, and nearly $4,000 supporting Devine. The union’s committee spent $5,000 on behalf of Kassakhian and roughly $10,000 on political newcomer Dan Brotman.
Gharpetian expressed bewilderment at a mailer sent out by the union praising Devine for voting against a hotel project, which he said could have provided jobs for its union members.
Glendale, which has seen considerable growth over the past decade, has increasingly been on the union’s radar — not just as a place where the employees it represents work, but where they live, according a union representative speaking on background.
“Our members are acutely impacted by the regional housing crisis. We have always been strong supporters of rent control,” said Danielle Wilson, a research analyst for the union, in a statement. “We think projects built on city property or with city subsidy should include affordable housing and green space.”
Gharpetian, a Realtor, said it makes sense for groups to support “their own.” He said he is concerned when the logical link between the group and the candidate is less obvious.
The independent committee called Supporting Ardy Kassakhian for Glendale City Council 2020, which had spent $141,529 on Kassakhian by late February, received $10,000 from DaVita Inc., which operates dialysis centers across the country; $15,000 from a union representing electrical workers; $15,000 from a union representing water and power workers, $5,000 from a PAC representing California oil and gas producers, 5,000 from Dart Container Corp., which makes foam cups and food containers, and $50,000 from a committee representing apartment-owner interests.
Fred Register, the committee’s principal officer, said he was not significantly involved in its fundraising efforts. An Altadena resident, Register volunteered to be the local filing-point person for the committee that he said has deep roots in Sacramento.
“My decision to help Ardy was based on the totality of his career over the years,” said Register, adding that he has known Kassakhian for a long time.
Campaign responses
In a lengthy statement, Kassakhian disavowed the contributions he’s received, adding that he is the only front-runner who has not lent his campaign personal money.
“We have raised more money than anyone else and that means we have done it by talking to voters and supporters who believe in us, and we have done it without any special-interest support,” he said.
Brotman, who has never held a political office, said special-interest money “doesn’t fall from the sky.”
“It comes only after a candidate or their surrogates let it be known they support the cause,” Brotman said in a statement. “I was given plenty of opportunities to talk to lobbyists. I declined unless I felt there was good alignment.”
Besides an independent expenditure from Unite Here 11, Brotman said he has received special-interest money from Planned Parenthood, the League of Conservation Voters, the Sierra Club, the Glendale College Guild and the Teamsters and Carpenters unions in addition to several Democratic Party clubs.
State Assemblywoman Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) said independent expenditures are at times mystifying and noted that outside groups sometimes “get it wrong on who they should be supporting.” Friedman beat out Kassakhian in a 2016 bid for a state Assembly seat.
Big interest groups are waking up to the fact that important issues are playing out on a local level, said Friedman, a former Glendale council member.
“Whether it’s banning Styrofoam or housing issues, local government still does have a very big voice and a very big impact,” Friedman said. “So it’s not surprising that big groups are saying that they want to feel that they maybe have a friendly voice on the City Council.”
Impacts on local government
Every elected official queried for this piece said unlimited independent expenditures have a negative effect on democracy, essentially crowding out smaller voices. Individuals contributions, which differ from city to city, are capped at $1,140 in Glendale. In Burbank, contributions from individuals cannot exceed $400, while in Los Angeles the ceiling is $800. Pasadena does not impose a cap on what individuals can give.
Currently, there’s nothing local or state officials can do to curb independent expenditures.
In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its landmark Citizens United ruling, extending 1st Amendment rights to political communications by corporations, including labor unions and nonprofits.
One thing the city can do is make it easier to find information about where candidates are receiving their money from online, Mayor Ara Najarian said.
“The bottom line is way more money is coming into the City Council race, and it doesn’t serve the process well,” Najarian said. “I would like to find ways to make this outside money more visible to residents and voters so they know where support is coming from and then let them make their decision.”