Gov. Code, § 85400 · Article 4. Voluntary Expenditure Ceilings
Gov. Code, § 85400
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) A candidate for elective state office, other than the Board of Administration of the Public Employees’ Retirement System, who voluntarily accepts expenditure limits shall not make campaign expenditures in excess of the following:
(1) For an Assembly candidate, four hundred thousand dollars ($400,000) in the primary or special primary election and seven hundred thousand dollars ($700,000) in the general or special general election.
(2) For a Senate candidate, six hundred thousand dollars ($600,000) in the primary or special primary election and nine hundred thousand dollars ($900,000) in the general or special general election.
(3) For a candidate for the State Board of Equalization, one million dollars ($1,000,000) in the primary election and one million five hundred thousand dollars ($1,500,000) in the general election.
(4) For a statewide candidate other than a candidate for Governor or the State Board of Equalization, four million dollars ($4,000,000) in the primary election and six million dollars ($6,000,000) in the general election.
(5) For a candidate for Governor, six million dollars ($6,000,000) in the primary election and ten million dollars ($10,000,000) in the general election.
(b) For purposes of this section, “campaign expenditures” has the same meaning as “election-related activities” as defined in Section 82022.5, except that it does not include preparing campaign finance disclosure statements.
(c) A campaign expenditure made by a political party on behalf of a candidate shall not be attributed to the limitations on campaign expenditures set forth in this section.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2024, Ch. 97, Sec. 5. (AB 2001) Effective January 1, 2025. Conditionally superseded; see amendment by Stats. 2025, Ch. 278.
Another version listed by the Legislative Counsel
Conditionally operative pursuant to Sec. 78 of Stats. 2025, Ch. 278.
(a) A candidate for elective state office, other than the Board of Administration of the Public Employees’ Retirement System, who voluntarily accepts expenditure limits shall not make campaign expenditures in excess of the following:
(1) For an Assembly candidate, four hundred thousand dollars ($400,000) in the primary or special primary election and seven hundred thousand dollars ($700,000) in the general or special general election.
(2) For a Senate candidate, six hundred thousand dollars ($600,000) in the primary or special primary election and nine hundred thousand dollars ($900,000) in the general or special general election.
(3) For a candidate for the State Board of Equalization, one million dollars ($1,000,000) in the primary election and one million five hundred thousand dollars ($1,500,000) in the general election.
(4) For a statewide candidate other than a candidate for Governor or the State Board of Equalization, four million dollars ($4,000,000) in the primary election and six million dollars ($6,000,000) in the general election.
(5) For a candidate for Governor, six million dollars ($6,000,000) in the primary election and ten million dollars ($10,000,000) in the general election.
(b) For purposes of this section, “campaign expenditures” has the same meaning as “election-related activities” as defined in Section 82022.5, except that it does not include preparing campaign finance disclosure reports.
(c) A campaign expenditure made by a political party on behalf of a candidate shall not be attributed to the limitations on campaign expenditures set forth in this section.
History (another version listed by the Legislative Counsel)
Amended by Stats. 2025, Ch. 278, Sec. 60. (AB 808) Effective January 1, 2026. Conditionally operative pursuant to Sec. 78 of Stats. 2025, Ch. 278.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV§ionNum=85400.
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- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
- the Legislative Counsel lists 2 versions of this section; the version shown is the one in force by its history, the other is under "Another version listed by the Legislative Counsel" (conditional)
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