The election attracted national attention due to the amount of money spent by Chevron both for and against various candidates.

[1][2] Chevron created two political action committees (both named Moving Forward) and contributed $2,933,363.90 to them amounting to a total of about $30 per city resident.

The only other source of money for them was $5000 each from the Richmond Police Officers Association and the local Firefighter's union.

As of October 10, they spent $1.4 Million supporting Nat Bates for mayor and Donna Powers, Charles Ramsey and Al Martinez for the city council.

They spent a further $500,000 on negative campaigning against council candidates Gayle McLaughlin, Jovanka Beckles and Eduardo Martinez.