The City of San Diego is the second largest city in California and the eight largest in the United States. For the latest election cycle the City Council fundraising was in the low $100,000 — hardly “millions.”
I think the total across all races in the entire county (school boards, ballot measures, multiple city councils, water districts, everything) was about $33 million for all candidates. SD County is so big that if it were a state it would be about 20th.
See for example — https://www.kpbs.org/news/2018/aug/10/latest-fundraising-num...