Scandals involving prominent state legislators such as Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, who admitted in November 2005 that he took more than $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors in exchange for hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts steered to them from Cunningham’s perch on the defense appropriation subcommittee, have rocked the state and angered citizens.(1)

Sadly, Cunningham is not alone in his legal and ethical breaches. Some members of California’s congressional delegation have turned their fundraising operations into family businesses. Since 2003, Rep. John Doolittle paid 15 percent (nearly $140,000) of the money raised by his political committee to his wife, Julie, a professional fundraiser.(2)

The wife and brother of Rep. Richard Pombo received more than $350,000 from 2001 to 2005 from Pombo’s political fund.(3)

There is hope for change. Reps. Michael M. Honda, Tom Lantos, Barbara Lee, George Miller, Pete Stark, Henry Waxman, Sam Farr and Bob Filner of California are sponsors of a key new bill, H.R. 3099, the Clean Money, Clean Elections Act, which would provide full public funding for House candidates.

This report unearths the following facts about California’s congressional delegation:

• Rep. Bill Thomas ran uncontested in the 2004 election, yet still raised more than $2.6 million, relying largely on PACs. Among members of the California delegation, Thomas received the highest amount of contributions from PACs per cycle ($1.8 million), the second-highest percentage of contributions from out-of-state (71.2 percent) and the third-highest amount of contributions from lobbyists per cycle ($122,980).


• Since the 2000 election cycle, Thomas received only 18.6 percent of such contributions from small donors (calculation excludes PACs), giving him the fifth-lowest such ratio among members of California’s congressional delegation.


• Despite winning the most recent election with 83 percent of the vote, Rep. Jerry Lewis continues to run a vigorous fundraising machine. Lewis tops the other members of California’s congressional delegation in contributions from lobbyists since 2000, averaging $172,248 per cycle from K Street. He is also the second-highest recipient of contributions from out of state and fifth highest recipient of contributions from PACs.


• Rep. Henry Waxman has the lowest reliance on small donors (only 8.1 percent of his total contributions from individuals) among all members of California’s congressional delegation.


• Rep. Adam Schiff has the highest reliance on small donors (52.6 percent) among all members of California’s congressional delegation, edging out Sens. Dianne Feinstein (52.5 percent) and Barbara Boxer (52.1 percent). (Note: This table pertains only to contributions from individuals, not PACs.)


• Six members of California’s congressional delegation reported over $100,000 in privately funded travel from January 2000 to June 2005.

Certain categories of data were adjusted, as indicated, to account for the periods of time members served and overall increases in contributions since the 2000 election cycle. Some of the findings highlighted above reflect these adjusted figures.