4 ms·

From the insights tab, with a date range of the past year, the state where the second most ad money was spent was California (after Pennsylvania). California i

by lysace 2y ago

From the insights tab, with a date range of the past year, the state where the second most ad money was spent was California (after Pennsylvania). California is not even close to being a swing state, afaik?

entropicdrifter 2y ago
There are a ton of smaller races in California that end up hotly contested. The state has big money on both sides of those smaller races.
fallingknife 2y ago
There are lots of people on the ballot besides Harris and Trump.
pchristensen 2y ago
California has over 10 million people more than Texas. It’s huge, so absolute number comparisons are often confusing. As usual, XKCD (can’t find the comic) - https://x.com/xkcd/status/1339348000750104576?lang=en https://x.com/xkcd/status/1339348000750104576?lang=en
- lysace 2y ago
  Sure, but it's a winner-takes-all situation. (That tweet is excellent.)
- mananaysiempre 2y ago
  > can’t find the comic The tweet quotes the alt-text of https://xkcd.com/2399/ https://xkcd.com/2399/ “2020 Election Map”: > There are more Trump voters in California than Texas, more Biden voters in Texas than New York, more Trump voters in New York than Ohio, more Biden voters in Ohio than Massachusetts, more Trump voters in Massachusetts than Mississippi, and more Biden voters in Mississippi than Vermont.
swatcoder 2y ago
California is strongly "blue" on the national issues these days, but that doesn't mean that there aren't hotly contested elections and ballot measures at issue within the state. Seperately, it brings potential as a source of funding to spend elsewhere specifically because some of the national questions aren't really open. If you are confident in the ROI, you can run ads there to drive fundraising -- especially early on -- and then spend those raised funds in contested elections elsewhere. The same dynamic happens in soundly "red" markets, although that may not be apparent in this dataset because of the specific demographics of Google advertising.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- johnnyanmac 2y ago
  I'm probably going to mail my ballot on Monday. Are there any particular hot button issues in California to look out for?
  - Rebelgecko 2y ago
    IMO this year the ballot props are much more meaningful to the average person than usual. The perennial niche prosp about kidney dialysis aren't making a showing for what feels like the first time in a decade. There are some big proposed changes to how local bond measures work, rent control, and the criminal justice system, IMO those are the ones spending the most time researching and considering the consequences. As far as the more niche ones this time around, there's the same-sex marriage prop (which I believe is purely symbolic and doesn't have an actual impact on same sex marriage in California) and the prop designed to force the AIDs Healthcare Foundation to spend more money on AIDS healthcare (IIUC currently they spend most of their money on political causes like lobbying against rezoning that would allow denser housing)
    - SllX 2y ago
      > there's the same-sex marriage prop (which I believe is purely symbolic and doesn't have an actual impact on same sex marriage in California) It removes an on-the-books clause that was rendered inoperable by a SCOTUS decision. I think it’s a step above symbolic since any future changes in SCOTUS jurisprudence reversing or partially reversing Obergefell (which I don’t think are at all likely with this court on this issue, but it doesn’t hurt to be prudent) could make it operable again.
candiddevmike 2y ago
California has an enormous economy and holding office at any level of government there opens a lot of "doors".
sangnoir 2y ago
> California is not even close to being a swing state, afaik? As the most populous state, California has a lot of political donors - likely the most registered members in a state for both major parties. 1 in 8 Americans are in California. Those many small-value & high-roller donors help finance the swing state operations, but need to be activated. Donors are why both Republican and Democratic party candidates held events in California, when it's not in play.
jccalhoun 2y ago
The population of California is so large that even though nationally it is solidly Democratic, there are more Republicans in California than in smaller states that are seen as solidly Republican. This matters in the local and state government elections.
bvirb 2y ago
Recent spending in CA (Sep 1-now) looks like it's heavily landlord associations running ads against prop 33, which would allow for new rent controls. https://adstransparency.google.com/political?region=21137&topic=political&start-date=2024-09-01&end-date=2024-10-26 https://adstransparency.google.com/political?region=21137&to... As a CA voter I find it very awesome that I could look that up so easily. EDIT: The sort order isn't part of the URL, so you have to sort by Amount spent: high to low -- blew that one Google!

by lysace 2y ago

entropicdrifter 2y ago

There are a ton of smaller races in California that end up hotly contested. The state has big money on both sides of those smaller races.

fallingknife 2y ago

There are lots of people on the ballot besides Harris and Trump.

pchristensen 2y ago

California has over 10 million people more than Texas. It’s huge, so absolute number comparisons are often confusing. As usual, XKCD (can’t find the comic) - https://x.com/xkcd/status/1339348000750104576?lang=en https://x.com/xkcd/status/1339348000750104576?lang=en

lysace 2y ago
Sure, but it's a winner-takes-all situation. (That tweet is excellent.)
mananaysiempre 2y ago
> can’t find the comic The tweet quotes the alt-text of https://xkcd.com/2399/ https://xkcd.com/2399/ “2020 Election Map”: > There are more Trump voters in California than Texas, more Biden voters in Texas than New York, more Trump voters in New York than Ohio, more Biden voters in Ohio than Massachusetts, more Trump voters in Massachusetts than Mississippi, and more Biden voters in Mississippi than Vermont.

swatcoder 2y ago

California is strongly "blue" on the national issues these days, but that doesn't mean that there aren't hotly contested elections and ballot measures at issue within the state. Seperately, it brings potential as a source of funding to spend elsewhere specifically because some of the national questions aren't really open. If you are confident in the ROI, you can run ads there to drive fundraising -- especially early on -- and then spend those raised funds in contested elections elsewhere. The same dynamic happens in soundly "red" markets, although that may not be apparent in this dataset because of the specific demographics of Google advertising.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
johnnyanmac 2y ago
I'm probably going to mail my ballot on Monday. Are there any particular hot button issues in California to look out for?
- Rebelgecko 2y ago
  IMO this year the ballot props are much more meaningful to the average person than usual. The perennial niche prosp about kidney dialysis aren't making a showing for what feels like the first time in a decade. There are some big proposed changes to how local bond measures work, rent control, and the criminal justice system, IMO those are the ones spending the most time researching and considering the consequences. As far as the more niche ones this time around, there's the same-sex marriage prop (which I believe is purely symbolic and doesn't have an actual impact on same sex marriage in California) and the prop designed to force the AIDs Healthcare Foundation to spend more money on AIDS healthcare (IIUC currently they spend most of their money on political causes like lobbying against rezoning that would allow denser housing)
  - SllX 2y ago
    > there's the same-sex marriage prop (which I believe is purely symbolic and doesn't have an actual impact on same sex marriage in California) It removes an on-the-books clause that was rendered inoperable by a SCOTUS decision. I think it’s a step above symbolic since any future changes in SCOTUS jurisprudence reversing or partially reversing Obergefell (which I don’t think are at all likely with this court on this issue, but it doesn’t hurt to be prudent) could make it operable again.

candiddevmike 2y ago

California has an enormous economy and holding office at any level of government there opens a lot of "doors".

sangnoir 2y ago

> California is not even close to being a swing state, afaik? As the most populous state, California has a lot of political donors - likely the most registered members in a state for both major parties. 1 in 8 Americans are in California. Those many small-value & high-roller donors help finance the swing state operations, but need to be activated. Donors are why both Republican and Democratic party candidates held events in California, when it's not in play.

jccalhoun 2y ago

The population of California is so large that even though nationally it is solidly Democratic, there are more Republicans in California than in smaller states that are seen as solidly Republican. This matters in the local and state government elections.

bvirb 2y ago

Recent spending in CA (Sep 1-now) looks like it's heavily landlord associations running ads against prop 33, which would allow for new rent controls. https://adstransparency.google.com/political?region=21137&topic=political&start-date=2024-09-01&end-date=2024-10-26 https://adstransparency.google.com/political?region=21137&to... As a CA voter I find it very awesome that I could look that up so easily. EDIT: The sort order isn't part of the URL, so you have to sort by Amount spent: high to low -- blew that one Google!