Donors pour record $450 million into California initiatives

No other state in US comes close to those amounts

Political donors have spent a record USD 450 million to support and oppose 17 November ballot initiatives in California, beating the state's own record for the most spent on propositions in a single year, campaign reports filed today show.

The fundraising has soared at least USD 12 million past California's previous record, when USD 438 million was spent on the campaigns for and against 21 measures on the ballot in 2008.

No other state has come close to those amounts.

California is one of the few states that empower voters to enact laws affecting state revenue and spending. The proposals going before the state's 18 million registered voters put billions of dollars at stake in this election.

"That's big business," said Jessica Levinson, a law professor at Loyola University in Los Angeles, who commented before the record was broken.

She and other campaign finance experts stress that big money flows to the contests that will have the biggest financial impact and the final push to sway voters is likely to include a spending blitz.

Proposition 61, a proposal to cap what the state pays for prescription drugs at the lowest price the US Department of Veterans Affairs pays, has drawn the biggest spending.

Pharmaceutical companies have contributed most of the USD 108 million that's been raised to defeat it.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which placed it on the ballot, has spent about USD 14 million backing it.

Because Proposition 61 would not force drug companies to change their prices, the state legislative analyst says its fiscal effect on the USD 3.8 billion market is unknown.