California’s Fair Political Practices Commission puts out some nifty little data from time to time, usually having to do with the corrosive effect of money in state politics. Today the FPPC offers a top-10 list of individual donors who have contributed the most money to California candidates and ballot measures from Jan. 1, 2000 to Dec. 31, 2009. Beneath each one I’ve added some explainers on where most of their money went.

OK, so what is it with all these guys named Steve?

1.) Steve Bing, real estate heir/movie mogul — $58,050,783
Most of this – $49,558,000 – was in support of the unsuccessful Proposition 87 of 2006, which would’ve imposed a tax on oil produced in the state to fund alternative energy research and development.

2.) Steve Poizner, Insurance Commissioner/2010 gubernatorial candidate — $43,205,282
Actually, this number seems to fall a little short, by my count. I see $19.2 million on his current gubernatorial bid; $14,855,086.55 on his 2006 race for Insurance Commissioner, and $5,750,731.63 in his unsuccessful race for the 21st Assembly District seat in 2004. He also put $2.25 million into 2005’s unsuccessful Proposition 77, a redistricting measure, and $3.3 million into the campaign against the unsuccessful Proposition 93 of 2008, which would’ve tinkered with term limits. That would add up to about $45.36 million.

3.) Steve Westly, former state Controller/2006 gubernatorial candidate — $41,728,277
Westly put $35.2 million into his losing battle for the 2006 Democratic gubernatorial nomination, four years after he’d spent $5,193,000 into winning the state Controller’s office.

4.) Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor — $25,871,398
Again, this looks like a lowball to me. I see that he spent $2,735,185 for his successful Proposition 49 of 2002, earmarking General Fund money for after-school programs; $2,157,318 for his Total Recall Committee, supporting the 2003 recall of Gov. Gray Davis; $16,850,000 for his 2003 election campaign; $4,758,585 for his California Recovery Team, the ballot measure committee for the 2005 special election; and $5,502,030 for his 2006 re-election campaign. That would add up to almost $32 million.

5.) Jerry Perenchio, former Univision owner — $23,267,738
A great benefactor of many GOP causes.

6.) Meg Whitman, 2010 gubernatorial candidate — $19,642,200
Biiiiiiig asterisk here. The FPPC’s numbers are only through the end of 2009, but Whitman doubled down on her gubernatorial bid in January; her total now stands at $39,075,806.11, which I suppose catapults here into fourth place.

7.) Angelo Tsakopoulos, developer — $15,795,379
A great benefactor of many Democratic causes, but none so much as the $6.13 million he sank into the Californians for Better Government independent expenditure committee in support of Democrat Phil Angelides’ 2006 gubernatorial campaign.

8.) John Doerr, Silicon Valley venture capitalist — $15,347,847
Includes $4 million he spent on the unsuccessful Proposition 88 of 2006, which would’ve raised money for education by imposing a $50 tax on real property parcels, and more than $3 million on the successful Proposition 71 of 2004, the stem-cell research bond measure.

9.) Reed Hastings, Netflix founder and CEO — $13,412,315
Includes $5,012,800 for Proposition 88 of 2006.

10.) Bill Simon, businessman/2002 gubernatorial candidate — $10,308,214
Looks like $9,775,174 of that was for his unsuccessful 2002 campaign.