These four PACs spent over $7,000 on city councilmembers’ most recent campaigns.
Each election season, city council candidates garner thousands of dollars in donations to fund their campaigns. Among some of the most regular donors to these campaigns are groups that represent the interests of landlords and property managers.
Four different property owner and manager groups made 18 donations, totaling over $7,000, to Long Beach council members’ most recent election campaigns through their Political Action Committees (PAC):
- California Apartment Association PAC – This association is the largest statewide landlord group in the nation, with over 60,000 members, according to its website. This group is aimed at those who run apartment buildings and provides resources to help them manage their buildings. The California Apartment Association was also staunchly in favor of ending the four-year ban on rent increases in Los Angeles that started during the pandemic.
- Apartment Association of California Southern Cities PAC – According to its website, this association’s goals are to “promote, protect, and enhance the rental housing industry and to preserve private property rights.” It represents the interests of landlords across counties of Los Angeles, Orange, San Luis Obispo, San Bernardino and San Diego.
- Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association PAC – This group has represented the interests of owners, operators and developers of mobile home communities across California since 1945, according to its website. Its members control over 1,600 mobile home communities in the state, which contain over 194,000 mobile homes.
- Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles PAC – According to its website, this group consists of landlords and property managers across Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino counties. It has been around for over a century, and has roughly 10,000 members, who control over 250,000 rental housing units. This group also sued the City of Los Angeles in 2023 over the COVID-era freeze on rent increases.
Political Action Committees are organized by various interest groups specifically to raise money to donate towards political campaigns. They wield significant power in the nation’s democratic process, as the winners of elections are often the candidate with the largest budget for their campaigns.
According to the City of Long Beach Campaign Ethics Guide, donors, including PACs, are allowed to contribute no more than $400 to each city council candidate.
Three of these PACs, belonging to the California Apartment Association, California Real Estate and the Apartment Association of California Southern Cities, also contributed to the failed mayoral campaign of Suzie Price, who ran against the current mayor Rex Richardson in 2022.
The property owner PAC that donated the most towards the election campaigns of current council members belongs to the California Apartment Association.
The California Apartment Association PAC donated to the most recent election campaign of every sitting councilmember except for Roberto Uranga of District 7.
Every councilmember accepted donations from at least one of the PACs listed above.
