Who Knows How Much Police Supporters Are Spending on This Election

On cloudy April 24, only about half a percent of Travis County's registered voters cast a ballot (photo by John Anderson)

For an off-year election with no high-profile political candidates on the ballot, Equity Action has done an impressive job fundraising in support of Prop A, their preferred police oversight ordinance, and against Prop B, the one favored by the Austin Police Association. Equity Action's 30-day-out campaign finance report, which covers Jan. 1-March 27, 2023, shows the group raised $379,582 and spent $66,485, which left them with $413,909 cash on hand (they had some money leftover from a previous fundraising period).

But they're spending more in the final month of the campaign. Expenditure reports filed last week show Equity Action put $88,000 into advertising, and several thousand more went to campaign staff. It's less clear how much Prop B supporters have spent on their campaign. The CFR filed April 6 by Voters for Oversight and Police Accountability (the Austin Police Association front group that gathered signatures to get Prop B on the ballot) shows the group raised $4,755 and had only spent $191. Since then, campaign signs for Prop B have been spotted around town showing that VOPA paid for them, so presumably they have done some fundraising. APA has not filed a CFR with the city of Austin clerk this year, so we don't know how much they have spent on the race – if any at all. They did drop $288,500 on VOPA's petition effort, so maybe they figured that was good enough.