The two best-financed candidates in the race for the 7th Los Angeles City Council District have received the vast majority of their campaign contributions from outside the northeast San Fernando Valley district, according to political campaign disclosure records.
Alex Padilla and Corinne Sanchez, who have each raised more than $200,000 in contributions and city matching funds for the April 13 election, have both campaigned hard on their ties to the district.
But only about 7% of donations to Padilla were from people and businesses inside the district, with much of the rest coming from downtown, West and East Los Angeles and Sacramento, where Padilla's work as a legislative aide has allowed him to develop a network of financial supporters.
Just 10% of the money to Sanchez came from individuals, firms or groups in the 7th District.
The analysis covered nearly 800 contributions to both candidates in which the identity of the giver was disclosed to the Los Angeles Ethics Commission.
Campaign reform advocates say it is not unusual for candidates to get most of their money from outside the district they seek to represent, but many say the practice is cause for concern.
"The concern is whether the candidates are accountable to their constituents or to their campaign contributors," said Jim Knox, chairman of California Common Cause. "There's a basic conflict there."
The nonpartisan California Public Interest Research Group tried unsuccessfully in 1996 to pass a measure requiring candidates to receive at least 75% of their money from within the district they are seeking to represent.
"The problem is you stop having candidates responsible to the people in the district. They have a divided loyalty," said Wendy Wendlandt, a director of CALPIRG.
The practice is not unusual. A study done in the 1980s found that state legislators, on average, received 92% of their money from donors outside their district.
Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political science instructor at Claremont Graduate University, said it is not surprising that many more contributions come from outside the working-class 7th District, which has many residents less likely to be able to write large campaign checks.
Former San Fernando Mayor Raul Godinez II, who received nearly a third of his contributions from within the district, has raised the issue in a recent mailer, warning of special interests "from outside the district . . . that want to control what happens in our communities."
