Wealth of Political Opportunity

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There’s no doubt money makes a difference.

When you have enough of it your food is a little better, your life expectancy is longer, you’re able to create opportunity for yourself and your kids. It’s not a measure of the quality of that life, it’s just that greater wealth provides for more informed choices.

For the past 22 years, the Business Journal has been looking at the wealthiest of the wealthy in Los Angeles. This year, the base line to make the cut was $1.2 billion. That’s a lot of opportunity.

The process of sorting out who belongs on the list is an exercise that involves a lot of educated estimating about what are often opaque holdings. But our team has a running start – we know, sometimes very specifically, what assets the folks on the list hold. Not all of the assets, certainly, but enough to allow us to make solid estimations.

In taking on the list in an election year, it became clear that all the sources we had at our disposal were far more informative when it came to estimating wealth than they were in exploring political campaigns. The government does have readily accessible information on giving to candidates by individuals and businesses, but those contributions represent an ever-smaller piece of the pie.

As Republican strategist Richard Grenell told us, more “secret money” is in the political process. And while we know some of the wealthiest have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to individual campaigns and to super PACs supporting candidates or causes, public records show that about a third have given nothing. Eleven have given $11,000 or less over the last 16 months.

It’s hard to believe that half of the 50 wealthiest, with so much money at their disposal and such stark choices this election season, haven’t ponied up to back candidates or causes that reflect their outlook. Money makes a difference.

It’s not entirely clear that cash directly influences policy, but it might make a difference, and a little more sunlight on that process would allow us to assess if it affects those choices.

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