Hefty money poured into California election

More than 447 million U.S. dollars have been poured into the 2006 California elections, with about three weeks still to go before the voting day, a website report said on Sunday.

Donors in the election campaign varied from individuals to corporations.

Proposition 87 calling for taxes on oil and promotion of alternative energies, a measure supported by incumbent Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, has set a money record of 107 million dollars, according to a report on the Los Angeles Times website.

The biggest individual donor favoring the initiative is Stephen Bing who gave 40 million dollars to the campaign.

Oil companies have given more than 60 million dollars in opposition. The total: an unprecedented 107 million dollars.

"Money is the mother's milk of politics," said Jesse Unruh, who was once the California Assembly leader.

Television magnate Jerrold Perenchio, chairman of Univision, gave a total of more than five million dollars to Schwarzenegger and his Democratic opponent State Treasurer Phil Angelides, with about 4.9 million dollars going to the former and 186,000 dollars to the latter. Perenchio is Schwarzenegger's largest contributor.

Hewlett-Packard, despite its internal problems, hasn't slowed its campaign donations. The tech giant gave 25,000 dollars to Schwarzenegger, raising its grand total for contributions to all of the governor's campaigns to 380,000 dollars. Angelides has received 8,000 dollars.

Angelides relies heavily on organized labor to fund his campaign for governor, collecting 3.5 million dollars this year from unions, or 20 percent of the money he has raised in 2006. Schwarzenegger reportedly received no donations from organized labor.

Meanwhile, in another contest involving Democratic Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer and Board of Equalization member Claude Parrish who run for state treasurer, donations reached a total of 11 million dollars, the most financially lopsided contest for state office.

Lockyer has got 10.6 million dollars while Parrish, his Republican opponent, has 323,000 dollars.

Source: Xinhua