The Long Beach Post is rethinking its election coverage, and doing that requires a new approach to reporting on campaign finance. Instead of simply reporting who raised the most money, it’s important to explain the context of campaign fundraising news.

USC Gould School of Law professor Abby K. Wood says information about where candidates get their campaign money help voters form impressions “of a candidate’s trustworthiness, intelligence, ethics and competence.” 

Long Beach voters will have many choices to make in the June 2022 election primary: There are five City Council seats open, city prosecutor, city attorney, city auditor and mayor. This installment deals with the mayor’s race, perhaps the most visible of all the local races.

All of the candidates’ committees that raised money in 2021 were required to submit campaign finance forms, known as Form 460s, detailing how much they raised, where the money came from, and what they spent that money on. 

The most recent disclosures cover the period from July 1 to Dec. 31. The deadline for submitting them was Jan. 31. Campaign contributions are limited by Long Beach to $900 for the mayoral race and $400 for City Council races.

The forms can give voters a sense of how strong a particular candidate is in terms of fundraising, but perhaps more importantly, what individuals or special interests they may be beholden to if they win. 

What the latest disclosures show

New disclosures are only available for four of the eight declared mayoral candidates who raised money in the latter half of last year: Deb Mozer, Suzie Price, Rex Richardson and Gerrie Schipske. 

Mozer’s occupation is listed as investigator. Price and Richardson are City Council members, but Price also works as a prosecutor at the Orange County District Attorney’s office. Schipske is a former City Council member.

Of them, Richardson raised the most money, by far.

Rex Richardson 

Richardson’s recent disclosures included two campaign committees, one for his old City Council campaign and a new one for mayor. 

• Richardson’s old City Council committee disclosure shows that from July 1 to the end of the year, he raised $17,760, spent $130,233 and ended the year with about $4,188 in the bank. 
• His mayor campaign committee disclosure, which covers all of 2021, shows Richardson raised $124,150, spent just under $400 and has about $123,911 in the bank.

While Richardson has clearly raised a great deal of money, in July Richardson’s City Council campaign committee disclosed nearly $170,000 in contributions during the first six months of 2021.

Looking at both campaign committee filings, political consultants and lobbyists were the largest group to donate to Ricardson, accounting for more than $21,000 of his contributions. 

Organizations and individuals working in real estate and land development contributed more than $12,000. Organized labor Political Action Committees accounted for nearly $10,000 in contributions, a third of which came from various firefighter union PACs. Education was another big donor group, with nearly $8,000 coming in from teachers and school officials.

The forms also show Richardson donated $400 to City Councilmember Roberto Uranga and $500 to LA County Supervisor candidate Lindsey Horvath.

Suzie Price

During 2021, Price’s campaign committee (Suzie Price for Long Beach City Council 2022) raised $15,345, spent $17,260 and ended the year with about $68,948 in the bank. 

Financial firms made up the largest category of donors, with nearly $2,000 in contributions, followed by a tie between land developers and organized labor ($1,200). Law firms and attorneys, logistics firms and political consultants also donated money, as did individuals who were either retired or didn’t disclose an occupation. 

Price didn’t officially create her Suzie Price for Mayor 2022 campaign committee until Jan. 4 of this year, so her first disclosures for that committee will come out after the next deadline, which is April 28.

Deb Mozer

Her statements indicate that during 2021, her campaign committee collected $7,875 in contributions, all of which were in the form of loans from herself. Candidates may legally loan their own campaigns money. 

But the forms also show that her campaign spent $8,463 during this period on web services and consultants, leaving her campaign with a little over $588 in debt.

Gerrie Schipske

Schipske only created her mayoral campaign in January of this year, but she still had a City Council committee that was raising money in 2021. 

In the last half of 2021, Schipske raised $5,346 and spent about $5,329. Though she has terminated this committee, her final statement indicated she still had about $3,000 in outstanding debt.

The disclosure form shows Schipske raised money primarily from individuals and retirees.

What about the other candidates for mayor?

Candidate Alexandra Escobar formed her mayoral campaign committee in January 2022 and had no contributions to disclose from 2021. The other candidates, J. Raul Cedillo, Alan Gafford, Franklin Sims and Joshua Rodriguez have not created campaign committees, according to the City Clerk’s office.

These candidates may start raising funds in the near future or may decide not to raise any money for their campaign. In any case, the next financial disclosure deadline is April 28, so it’s possible we’ll see more campaign contribution reports then.

Editor’s note: This story was updated to correct the spelling of Roberto Uranga’s name and Lindsey Horvath’s title.