California Oligarch – A new data project reveals that just 99 wealthy donors and corporations have outspent the rest of California combined over the last two decades.
Fifty years after the phrase “follow the money” became a shorthand for exposing political corruption. the map of influence has grown exponentially more complex. Today, that trail leads to a small, concentrated circle of power. A new project. the California Oligarch Index. quantifies what many have long suspected: a tiny group of elite donors and corporations is effectively dictating the state’s legislative agenda.
Between 2005 and 2024. the top 99 individual and corporate political donors in California funneled more into state campaigns and lobbying than the bottom 99.9% of all residents. businesses. and organizations combined. This spending reached approximately $5.8 billion. a figure that excludes the current. massive influx of capital aimed at defeating November’s Proposition 40. a proposed tax on extreme wealth.
The index was developed by researchers at the Social Movement Support Lab, led by civil rights attorney Jim Freeman. His team found that these entities are not merely pursuing niche interests; they are collectively funding a pro-wealth agenda that remains largely shielded from public scrutiny. “These companies and people tend not to be particularly transparent or forthright about their political activity,” Freeman said. “We don’t know enough about who they are, what they’re doing and why they’re doing it.”.
Chevron leads the list with over $260 million in spending during that two-decade window, primarily focused on rolling back environmental regulations. DaVita follows with $256 million. largely directed at blocking oversight of dialysis clinics. while the California Association of Realtors has spent $254 million to resist rent control and housing laws. Philip Morris/Altria rounds out the top tier with $237 million aimed at preventing tobacco taxes and flavor bans. While these corporations often appear disparate. Freeman noted that they frequently converge to support broad. pro-business lobbying groups like the California Chamber of Commerce and the California Business Roundtable. both of which are themselves among the top 99 spenders.
The reliance on the term “oligarch” for these corporations is rooted in ownership data. Researchers point to the fact that three Wall Street firms—Vanguard. BlackRock. and State Street—hold major stakes in 95% of S&P 500 companies. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the wealthiest 1% of Americans own 51% of all corporate equities and mutual fund shares. This centralization allows mega-corporations and individuals like Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. Gap co-founder Doris Fisher. and the Walton family to push agendas—such as the expansion of charter schools—that operate independently of the public interest.
The pattern is not limited to the private sector. Eight law enforcement groups appear within the top 99 spenders. led by the California Correctional Peace Officers Association. which has poured $95.6 million into expanding correctional systems and increasing budgets. Meanwhile. individual contributors like Tom Steyer. who spent over $215 million on a failed primary run for governor. operate with similar intensity. though some high-profile spenders like him do not appear in this specific index.
The power imbalance is solidified by the rise of dark money and Super PACs. which move funds through nonprofits that are not required to disclose their original donors. For those behind the index. the goal is to bridge the gap between abstract feelings of inequality and the concrete policies that impact daily life. By documenting this flow of capital. they hope to show that California is not an outlier. but rather the most prominent stage for a national struggle over who truly controls the democratic process.
“People have at least a broad sense of the big money in politics, but that’s usually a very abstract feeling,” Freeman said. “We wanted to really connect that to the policies that affect people’s lives and the harms that they’ve experienced as a result of a lot of these policies.”
California politics California Oligarch Index political spending lobbying Jim Freeman dark money