Spending on lobbying firms exceeded $91 million in Q3

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Nov. 4th, 2025
Capitol Weekly
By BRIAN JOSEPH

Special interests, AKA “lobbyist employers” as the California Secretary of State calls them, paid lobbying firms more than $91 million to lobby state government in the third quarter of 2025, according to a Capitol Weekly analysis of lobbying firm reports.

As Capitol Weekly always notes in quarterly lobbying reports, that number doesn’t include all of the money spent on lobbying during the third quarter of the 2025-26 legislative cycle, as lobbying firm disclosure reports don’t include wages and expenses for in-house lobbyists.

The $91 million represents a 1 percent increase from the amount spent in the second quarter, after accounting for disclosure amendments. According to updated figures, special interests spent more than $90 million on lobbying firms during the second quarter of the year.

Special interests spent more in the third quarter than the two previous quarters so far in the cycle.

For the first nine months of 2025, special interests spent more than $258 million on lobbying firms, according to SoS disclosures analyzed on Nov. 3rd.

(Capitol Weekly notes in these quarterly lobbying spending stories when we gathered our data because the filing of subsequent amendments can change totals. We also note that we try at every turn to catch any incorrectly formatted data in order to avoid any miscounts. Scraping numbers from Cal-Access, however, can be an imperfect process and mis-formatted data isn’t always properly flagged in spreadsheet calculations. Please contact us if you see any incorrect totals.)

Capitol Weekly’s analysis aggregates the total dollar value of all lobbying payments received by lobbying firms that are registered with the state, as disclosed on Form 625, which is filed quarterly with the SoS.

The Form 625 is only for lobbying firms, which are defined as businesses “compensated to communicate directly with any state, legislative or agency official to influence legislative or administrative action on behalf of a client.”

The top grossing firm for the third quarter was Jared Ficker, Cassie Gilson, Jason Kinney, Dustin Moore and Kevin Schmidt’s Axiom Advisors, which reported receiving nearly $3.5 million.

Coming in second for July through September was Capitol Advocacy, which reported receiving more than $3.3 million, and California Strategies, which received nearly $2.8 million.

Four other firms reported receipts of more than $2 million in the second quarter:

• Platinum Advisors(nearly $2.6 million);

• Townsend Public Affairs (more than $2.3 million);

• KP Public Affairs (more than $2.22 million); and

• Shaw Yoder Antwih Schmelzer & Lange (more than $2.2 million).

The firms reporting receipts of more than $1 million were:

• Weideman Group(more than $1.9 million);

• Sloat Higgins Jensen and Associates (more than $1.63 million);

• Actum(nearly $1.6 million);

• Guggenheim Securities ($1.52 million), the investment banking arm of the global investment firm Guggenheim Partners;

• Political Solutions(more than $1.5 million);

• Deveau Burr Group (more than $1.3 million);

• Niemela, Pappas and Associates(nearly $1.3 million);

• Fernandez Jensen Kimmelshue Government Affairs (nearly $1.24 million);

• Nielsen Merksamer Parrinello Gross & Leoni (nearly $1.23 million);

• Campbell Strategy & Advocacy (nearly $1.2 million);

• Lang Hansen Giroux & Kidane(nearly $1.15 million);

• Resolute (more than $1.028 million); and

• Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck (more than $1.012 million).

There were four firms that topped $900,000 (Carpenter Garcia Sievers, Joe A. Gonsalves & Son, Caliber Strategies and Lighthouse Public Affairs) and seven that topped $800,000 (California Advocates, Aaron Read & Associates, Miller, Cespedes and Associates, Samson Advisors, Arc Strategies, McHugh Koepke Padron Government Relations and Sacramento Advocates).

One hundred and sixty-four firms reported receiving six figures or more in payments in Q3. Another 148 firms reported receiving five figures in payments.

For the first nine months of 2025, one firm reported receiving more than $9 million: John Latimer’s Capitol Advocacy, with nearly $9.3 million.

Two more firms reported receipts of more than $8 million: Axiom (nearly $8.7 million) and California Strategies (nearly $8.1 million). Platinum Advisors reported nearly $7.3 million in payments.

Three other firms reported receipts of more than $6 million for the first three quarters:

• KP (nearly $6.9 million);

• Townsend (nearly $6.8 million); and

• Shaw Yoder (more than $6.4 million).

Two more firms reported receiving more than $5 million: Weideman (nearly $5.8 million) and Actum (more than $5.03 million).

Two others reported more than $4 million: Sloat Higgins (more than $4.07 million) and Political Solutions (more than $4.05 million).

Seven more firms reported more than $3 million in receipts:

• Nielsen Merksamer (more than $3.84 million);

• Niemela, Pappas (more than $3.81 million);

• Deveau Burr (nearly $3.6 million);

• Lang Hansen (more than $3.5 million);

• Fernandez Jensen (nearly $3.5 million);

• Campbell Strategy (more than $3.3 million); and

• Guggenheim Securities ($3.08 million).

An additional 17 firms reported receipts of more than $2 million and 30 other firms reported receiving more than $1 million.

The 65 firms that received more than $1 million over the first three quarters of the year accounted for 71 percent of the money spent on lobbying firms. The next 181 firms that collected six figures over those nine months accounted for just 27 percent of the total spending on lobbying firms.

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