Voters beware: A ton of money is seeking to influence one Sacramento assembly race | Opinion

Voters, beware.

Advertisements from independent expenditure committees are landing in your mailboxes to sway the choices you make on your ballot ahead of the March 5 primary.

If you live in Sacramento, you’ve been bombarded with a ridiculous amount of mail for the wide-open 6th Assembly district election, where a large field is looking to replace the departing Kevin McCarty, an aspirant in the Sacramento mayoral race.

On Feb. 8, The Bee’ Editorial Board endorsed Paula Villescaz in this race. She is a hard-working member of the San Juan Unified School District board with an impressive grasp of the issues and experience in managing a large school district budget. That’ll be a good skill to have as the legislature grapples with California’s looming and sizeable budget deficit.

Yet within a week of our endorsement of Villescaz, The Bee reported that at least nine independent expenditure groups were investing heavily and primarily for two of Villescaz’s opponents.

One is Deputy Attorney General Maggy Krell: Various independent expenditure committees have reported more than $800,000 in spending in recent weeks, according to a review of late expenditures on the California Secretary of State website. Law enforcement groups have accounted for about $100,000 of that spending, and more than $400,000 has come from a company with more than 300 kidney dialysis centers in California, Davita Inc. The second biggest giver is the so-called “Keep California Golden” independent expenditure committee at more than $200,000. Its contributors also include Davita, but also law enforcement, apartment owners, car dealers and tobacco giant Philip Morris USA.

Carlos Marquez, the former ACLU California executive director, has also been the focus of big investments from independent expenditures. Previously an advocate for the California Charter Schools Association, related interests group have spent about half a million dollars on in recent weeks.

By contrast, Villescaz has a $2,000 late independent expenditure from the Courage California State Political Action Committee.

Independent expenditures are supposed to operate separately from a candidate with no coordination with the campaigns they invest in.

Candidates understandably focus on themselves rather than who is funding them and how much. And for voters who have yet to cast their ballots, precious time is left to make important choices.

If early projections hold, there may be a record low turnout for a presidential primary locally, even with some important races here in Sacramento. That means every vote counts, now more than ever. Any rush of last-minute mailers lifting candidates or trashing them deserve extra scrutiny because voters should strongly question the motives and money behind them. They should also question whether political candidates could be unduly influenced by the special interests paying for the mailers stuffing their mailboxes this weekend.

A vote shouldn’t be bought. A vote should be earned.

An earlier version of this editorial incorrectly reported that candidate Paula Villescaz received more than $160,000 in independent expenditures.

This story was originally published March 2, 2024 at 5:00 AM.