Lawmaker hosts another Super Bowl fundraiser

For the third consecutive year, former State Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, hosted a fundraiser at Sunday's Super Bowl.

It's unclear how many people attended, or where in the stadium the fundraiser was held. The event was not held in a skybox, according to her campaign spokesman, Evan Westrup.

Westrup said that Atkins, who is running for governor in 2026, was in Las Vegas through the weekend.

These Super Bowl fundraisers — Atkins spent more than $222,000 in 2023 and more than $167,000 in 2022, according to campaign finance documents — are for Atkins' “California Works” ballot measure committee, which raises money for ballot measures the senator backs.

Atkins' campaign said that the 2022 fundraiser was for Proposition 1, to enshrine the right to an abortion in the California Constitution. However, the Super Bowl was in February of that year and the constitutional amendment wasn't introduced until after Politico leaked the draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in May.

Likewise, 2023's Super Bowl happened days before a constitutional amendment was introduced on Feb. 14 to repeal 2008's Proposition 8, which prohibits same-sex marriage, and months before the Legislature voted to send it to California voters.

Atkins also used the occasion of the 2022 Super Bowl to raise money for her campaign for lieutenant governor at the time — campaign finance filings show she spent more than $18,000 on that fundraiser, a fraction of what she spent on the ballot measure fundraiser.

In an email statement to The Bee, Westrup wrote, “Sen. Atkins is proud to lead the fight to protect marriage equality in California and this event will support efforts to repeal Proposition 8.”

The San Francisco 49ers lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in overtime, 25-22.

Tickets for the big game are hard to get.

According to the website Statista, a quarter of all Super Bowl tickets are reserved by the National Football League, another 35% go to the two teams competing. In 2023, 5% also went to the host team (the Arizona Cardinals). The remaining 35% go to the rest of the NFL teams.

In 2023, according to campaign finance reports that were filed, Atkins' ballot measure committee paid the NFL more than $92,000 for tickets.