The Los Angeles Ethics Commission lifted the campaign-expenditure limit Tuesday in the primary election for the City Council seat held by David Ryu.
Candidates who participate in the city’s matching funds program must limit their campaign spending in both the primary and general elections. However, the expenditure ceiling is lifted when independent spending in a specific race reaches a certain threshold, depending on the elected office in question, according to the Ethics Commission.
For a City Council race, the threshold is $86,000 spent in one election to support or oppose one candidate.
There are three candidates on the Fourth District primary election ballot: Ryu, Sarah Kate Levy and Nithya Raman. Write-in candidates who have qualified for the election are Susan Collins and Eric Christie. The district includes the Hollywood Hills and Sepulveda Corridor.
Independent spending of $114,199 has been reported in support of Ryu, and independent spending of $583 has been reported in support of Raman. No independent expenditures have been reported to support or oppose Levy, Christie or Collins.
Most of Ryu’s supportive expenditures have come from the Golden State Leadership Fund, which has pumped in $90,000 in his re-election effort.
Raman’s support came from the Courage California State PAC.
Independent spending involves a person or organization spending money on political communication that supports or opposes a candidate or ballot measure and the communication is not coordinated with nor authorized by the candidate.
Independent expenditures must be reported to the Ethics Commission within 24 hours.
Additional information about the candidates, independent spending and political communications in the Fourth District primary election is available on the commission’s Election Totals page at ethics.lacity.org/elections/.
Campaign activity and political communications can also be searched on the commission’s Public Data Portal at ethics.lacity.org/dataform/.