Uber and Lyft have spent more than $8 million in support of Austin’s Prop 1 through the Ridesharing Works for Austin PAC, according to campaign finance reports filed Friday afternoon.
In four months, the transportation companies have spent almost as much as Ken Paxton spent on his entire 2014 campaign for attorney general, and more than Glenn Hegar, Sid Miller and George P. Bush spent on their 2014 statewide campaigns combined. For the statewide candidates, we are counting all expenditures made from January 1, 2013 through December 31, 2014. The transportation companies’ spending is from January 1 through April 29 of this year.
The latest Ridesharing Works for Austin PAC report covers the last 30 days, from March 29 to April 27. The PAC received $4.9M in contributions, all from Lyft and Uber, and spent $4.6M. It reported having $690K on hand. In a separate special notice also filed on Friday, the PAC reported receiving an additional $1M from Uber and $21K from Lyft.
Summary of Ridesharing Works for Austin's Expenditures
- $2.55M on “media buy[s]” with Austin-based Link Strategies
- $1.37M on “field program and get out the vote efforts” with Washinton, D.C.-based Block by Block
- $543K on “media buys” and “political advertising consulting” with Washington, D.C.-based Bully Pulpit Interactive
- $337K on “direct mail” with Chicago-based The Strategy Group
- $108K on “voter registration calls” with Washington, D.C.-based SwitchBoard
- $105K on “campaign consulting” with Park City, Utah-based Jedburghs
- $58K on “ad production” with Chicago-based AKPD Message & Media
- $50K on “campaign consulting” with former Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell, whose endorsement was touted by the PAC earlier this week
- $31K on “attorney fees” with Dallas-based Thompson & Knight
- $30K on “video production services” with Austin-based Johnson Strategies.
- $12K on “campaign consulting” with former HD49 candidate Huey Rey Fischer
Note: This list does not include $2.1M of in kind spending – including $1.0M in “consultant fees for campaign strategy” – by Uber and Lyft. It does include unpaid incurred obligations reported by Ridesharing Works for Austin in its 8-day-out report.
Uber’s total investment in Prop 1 to date is $5.6 million, a little more than double Lyft’s $2.4 million (Uber’s total includes that $1M reported in the special notice.).
According to a tweet from the Austin American-Statesman’s Nolan Hicks, the previous record for a single candidate or entity’s spending in a City of Austin election was $1.2M, spent by Steve Adler in his successful 2014 mayoral campaign.
Our City Our Safety Our Choice PAC, which opposes Prop 1, reported raising $88K and spending $68K for the period March 29-April 27. Overall the group has raised just over $100K.
