Mercury News: The campaign to replace U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo is California’s most expensive House race. Here’s where the money is flowing.

Mercury News: The campaign to replace U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo is California’s most expensive House race. Here’s where the money is flowing.

Sean McMorris, the transparency, ethics and accountability program manager for good government group California Common Cause, said it becomes an accountability issue because some self-funded candidates don’t engage with voters as much because they don’t need to solicit as many donations. “Money should not dictate who should run for office or who gets elected,” he said. At the congressional level, money plays a large role in the election, and while McMorris said it’s not the “determining factor,” candidates need a minimum of a couple hundred thousand dollars to get their message out. California Common Cause’s McMorris said it’s important that voters look at the bottom of mailers and ads to see if they’re being paid for by the candidate or special interest groups. And while candidates and PACs aren’t allowed to coordinate, McMorris said that “none of us are immune to the influence of money.” “Voters should realize this is a special interest that is more likely than not who is supporting the candidate because they think the candidate will assist them in some way or they think they will have more access to this candidate,” he said. “At the end of the day, most of this comes down to those special interests wanting goodies”