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This paper examines campaign finance patterns in three cities: Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. We ask how much money candidates for city council seats need to raise to be competitive and to win. Each of the three cities exhibited markedly different fundraising dynamics. In general Los Angeles more closely resembles state and national elections in terms of the importance of fundraising, while San Francisco and Seattle?s elections have fewer commonalities with higher levels of government. We conclude that how much candidates need to raise to be legitimate contenders for city council seats is heavily influenced by how elections are organized and city/district size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]