Suburban Money in Central City Elections

Abstract

When candidates run for municipal office, do they rely on campaign contributions from suburbanites? This research note explores this question by analyzing fund-raising networks in four central cities: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. The majority of campaign contributions to mayoral and city council candidates come from within their city. While the fund-raising networks of central-city candidates extend into the suburbs, they only do so partially. In particular, they only connect to a handful of wealthy suburbs that are geographically close to the central city. Regional fund-raising networks are limited, indicating that the flow of political money does not mirror the economic and policy interdependence that has been documented by new regionalists.