This Hotly Contested Race Has State’s Top Campaign Donor — The Self-Funded Candidate

The race to represent State Senate District 25 has been shaping up to be one of the most hotly-contested in California.

There’s an open seat in the largely-Democratic, ethnically-diverse district that sprawls from Glendale to Rancho Cucamonga with the San Gabriel Valley in between. The current senator, Anthony Portantino, is running to replace Rep. Adam Schiff in the 30th Congressional District.

That’s set the stage for what’s become one of the state’s most expensive and fractious battles. Ahead of the March 5 primary, more than $5 million in campaign contributions and spending by outside groups has flowed into a five-way race with four Democrats and one Republican.

One candidate has dug deep to fund her own campaign: Democrat Yvonne Yiu.

The most recent state fundraising reports show Yiu’s campaign funds total nearly $3.2 million, with $2.9 million — or 92% — coming from her own pocket and the rest from individual contributions.

That makes Yiu, a Monterey Park city council member who used to run her own investment banking firm, the biggest donor to any race in California — surpassing the California Democratic Party and influential unions representing construction workers and correctional officers, as first reported by CalMatters.

“The amount of money that one candidate has used for their own election is pretty astounding even at the state level of politics,” said Sean McMorris, who tracks transparency and accountability in politics for California Common Cause.

Only one other legislative candidate has generated more money. Kathryn Lybarger, who is running for state Senate District 7 in the East Bay, has raised more than $570,000 in contributions while independent groups are spending nearly $2.6 million to support her campaign.

Yiu is not getting help from outside groups. But some of her fellow candidates are, including Yiu’s main rival, fellow Democrat Sasha Renée Peréz.

Labor unions and other groups have spent more than $470,000 in support of Peréz — who’s raised more than $850,000 in contributions on her own.

Yiu, just with the money she gave her campaign, has outraised Peréz and the groups in support of Peréz by a margin of more than 2 to 1.

Yiu has invested in her own campaign before. During an unsuccessful 2022 run for state controller, she drew down nearly $6 million of her own funds.

Asked why she relies on her own money, Yiu told LAist that “first of all, as you all know, fundraising is not easy, and we all need money to run a campaign.”

She added: “I want to make myself a viable candidate and also be independent and not beholden with different interest groups.”

Main rivals

Yiu has used her hefty war chest to buy mass mailings and television and digital commercials in one of the country’s priciest media markets.

Her ads stress that Asian Americans, who make up 30% of the district’s electorate, need more representation in the state Senate, especially with senators Dave Min and Janet Nguyen both leaving to run for other offices. Yiu also boosts her tough-on-crime messaging and endorsements by police unions.

Her ads often target Peréz, the vice mayor of Alhambra, framing her as weak on public safety and juxtaposing her image in commercials next to that of L.A. County District Attorney George Gascón. His critics blame his progressive policies on cash bail and sentencing for emboldening criminals.

Peréz counters that she’s voted to fully fund the city’s police department, and has advocated for a program in which law enforcement works with mental health clinicians and social workers to help unhoused people.

Peréz’s ads tout her platform of reducing homelessness and expanding college opportunities, as well as endorsements by the California Democratic Party and Planned Parenthood.

Peréz has also fired back at Yiu in ads, spotlighting, for example, a $22,000 fine imposed on the investment banking firm that Yiu founded and led. Financial industry regulator FINRA found that Yiu’s firm had “improperly” deposited investor funds into a real estate account owned by a managing member. Yiu blames problems on financial advisers who worked for her firm, and said her own record is clean.

Peréz said she is in nonstop fundraising mode so she can keep advertising, which she recognizes is critical to winning over voters busy with jobs and feeding families.

“You don’t want to spend several hours reading through people’s websites,” Peréz said. “You want to make that decision as easy as possible.”

Democats Yvonne Yiu and Sasha Renée Pérez are the candidates sending out mailers to voters in Senate District 25.

A random sampling of five voters across the district found that four of them recognized Yiu from ads but none of the other candidates. (The fifth voter didn’t know who any of the candidates were.)

Dana Chu, a marketing specialist from Alhambra, said she was online when an ad from Yiu made her perk up.

“It was different from the other advertisements I was getting when I watch YouTube — a campaign ad as opposed to an ad for Febreze or insurance,” Chu said.

UCLA political scientist Natalie Masuoka said ads give well-funded candidates an advantage especially in low-turnout, low-information elections like primaries.

“Advertising could inform swing voters and new voters who don’t necessarily have really solidified views,” in contrast to highly partisan, motivated voters, Masuoka said.

But Matsuoka noted that self-funded candidates with advertising firepower are not guaranteed success at the ballot box.

Developer Rick Caruso sunk more than $100 million of his own money into his failed 2022 L.A. mayoral bid while former eBay CEO Meg Whitman lost a 2010 gubernatorial race after spending $170 million.

When Yiu ran for controller as a self-funded candidate in 2022, she received 15% of the vote, not enough for her to advance to the general election. 

Running with fewer resources

The other candidates in the state Senate race are Republican Elizabeth Wong Ahlers, a Crescenta Valley Town Council member and two other Democrats: Sandra Armenta, a Rosemead City Council member and Teddy Choi, who is a real estate agent from Pasadena, according to his campaign website.

Elizabeth Wong Ahlers is the lone Republican running in State Senate District 25.

Ahlers, who’s been endorsed by the California Republican Party, is hopeful that the four Democrats will split the vote in the nonpartisan primary and she can land in the top two and advance to the general election.

“It’s been kind of fun watching (the Democrats) squabble among themselves and I just stay on course and speak my message,” said Ahlers. Her priorities are to rein in inefficient state spending and ban the teaching of “gender ideology” to schoolchildren.

Ahlers has generated the third-largest amount of money in the race: $207,000 with $122,000 in outside spending to support her campaign.

Armenta, who has raised $126,000 with no outside support, says it’s been frustrating to see rivals with far more resources, whether through self-funding or getting help from unions, which she said should be investing money in its membership rather than on political mailers.

“There’s many great elected officials that will never be able to be legislative members because they don’t have the finances or they’re not ‘the chosen one,’” Armenta said.

Armenta said she hasn’t quit as she still hopes to make it to Sacramento and push for greater investment in police training and workforce development opportunities, starting in high school.

Sandra Armenta is one of four Democrats trying to win a spot in the general election.

Choi, who did not respond to requests for an interview, has not filed any fundraising reports with the state.

Courting Asian American votes

Yiu, a Hong Kong immigrant who speaks Cantonese and Mandarin, said she is hoping to consolidate the Asian American vote.

Yiu, formerly a Republican who said she switched her registration to Democrat several years ago, urged Asian American Republicans to vote for her instead, saying she is a more viable candidate than Ahlers in the safely-Democrat district.

Ahlers, who is fifth-generation Chinese American, also has been courting Asian American conservatives, texting them fundraising appeals in Chinese.

Democrat Teddy Choi is one of three Asian Americans running to represent the 25th state senate district, where Asian Americans make up about 30% of the vote.

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Teddy Choi campaign website

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It is a rare race with three Asian American candidates. Research shows that some Asian Americans have a propensity to vote for someone who looks like them. But in a district with as much ethnic and socioeconomic diversity as the 25th, Asian Americans may not coalesce behind a single candidate, said UCLA’s Masuoka.

Masuoka compares the wealthy Asian Americans living in San Marino to working-class Asian Americans in Monterey Park. Both cities have Asian majorities but their residents “have different socioeconomic interests and different immigration-related interests” that will inform their votes, Matsuoka said.

Emily Kim of La Crescenta said for her a candidate’s race is not a deciding factor. She is looking for elected leaders who prioritize education and will stand up to anti-Asian discrimination.

“I do want someone to represent my race, my voice,” said Kim, who is Chinese American and married to a Korean American. “But we do research for every single person.”

Voters have until 8 p.m. on March 5 to get educated and cast their ballot.

Maloy Moore contributed to this story.