SACRAMENTO -- Got $1 million?

That is how much, on average, it costs to win a seat in the California State Senate, according to MapLight, the nonpartisan research group that studies money’s influence on politics.

The group looked at how much money was raised by members of the state Legislature who won election in 2012.

The average, to be precise, was $1,041,537 for those who won a seat in the Senate and $708,371 for candidates elected to the Assembly.


That works out to $970 raised every day during the election period by Assembly candidates and $1,427 daily by Senate contenders, the group found.

The most raised by an Assembly candidate was $4.1 million, by Assemblyman Ken Cooley (D-Rancho Cordova), while Sen. Richard Roth (D-Riverside) took in a little more than $3 million, the most for a candidate in the upper house, according to MapLight.

Others won election spending far less. Assemblyman Steve Fox (D-Palmdale) won after raising just $21,142, while Sen. Steve Knight (R-Palmdale) brought in just $259,147, MapLight found.

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patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com