Brown Shows Early Lead for 2014 California Gubernatorial Race

The first filing period for campaign finance has passed and the prospective candidates for California Governor in 2014 have reported.

Governor Brown's re-election campaign has raised over 2.8 million between January 1^st and June 30^th of this year. In comparison, his prospective opponents, former Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado and Assemblymember Tim Donnelly, raised a little over $400,000 combined in the same time period.

The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) has Brown with a 54 percent approval rating among likely voters. Brown’ approval rating polled at 67 percent with Democrats, 29 percent with Republicans, and 44 percent among independents.

Brown led the way to a balanced approach to the state’s budget. Under Brown, California attained $1.2 billion in surplus, a stark contrast from the states’ $42 billion deficit just four years earlier.

Brown’s biggest donor so far is the Democratic State Central Committee of California, which donated $900,000 to his reelection campaign. He also received donations from notable groups such as Wal-Mart, the California Nurses Association, California School Employees Association and several Indian tribes.

Asm. Donnelly, who has raised $83,000. is pushing tax reform as one of the main issues in his platform:

Donnelly has currently received most of his campaign funds from individual donors.

 One of his past and most significant campaign contributors has been Altria, parent company of Philip Morris. Aside from candidate committees, notable donors have included Pechanga Band of Lusieno Mission Indians, AT&T, and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association.

Maldonado has raised over $300,000, and has over $44,000 left on hand. Most of his contributions for the 2014 gubernatorial race have come from individual donors. In the past, he’s received donations from the California Trucking Association, AT&T, California Housing Council and Pechanga Band of Lusieno Mission Indians.

Maldonado has been outspoken against realignment and Brown’s handling of the overcrowded prisons situation. He stated, “I would have demonstrated to the courts that I was moving forward with increasing capacity to hold some hardened criminals in California.”

Maldonado was a prominent supporter of California’s Proposition 14, the top-two, nonpartisan primary system. The 2014 election will be the first gubernatorial election conducted through California’s new primary system.

While it’s still early, Brown’s challengers will need to step up their fundraising efforts if they hope to be competitive in the race for California governor.