“Disney Breaks Its Own Spending Record in This Year’s Anaheim Council Election”

Voice of OC:

With a week to go until the election, The Walt Disney Company’s spending on Anaheim City Council races has blown past the record it set in 2014 and is approaching the $1-million mark, according to the most recent campaign finance filings.

The parent company of Disneyland has funneled more than $900,000 into a complicated network of groups supporting Disney-friendly candidates in four council races and attacking their opponents, according to a Voice of OC review of the campaign finance disclosures.

There is good reason for the heavy campaign spending, which is far more than any other individual or group is committing to the various races. The city is holding its first districts-based election, which has expanded the City Council – and the political turf that the company needs to defend….

  • Disney’s money follows a complicated path — typically flowing from group to group with names like “Orange County Freedom Fund” and “California Taxpayers Association,” before being spent on mailers that bear no trace of Disney’s sponsorship. Often there are three separate committees between Disney money and the attack mailers.

  • Most of the Disney spending has flowed through a committee called “Moving Orange County Forward.” And while the company gave $475,000 directly to the group, another $414,000 arrived through a much more circuitous route. Disney gave that money to eight separate committees – like the California Apartment Association PAC and Building Industries of Southern Claifornia PAC – that in turn gave $480,000 to Moving Orange County Forwar

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