How Cox made the money to run for California governor
SACRAMENTO — Seeking crossover appeal in a heavily Democratic state, Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox highlights his experience in the private sector as the salve for California’s problems.
“I’m a businessman, I’m not a politician,” he told the audience at a Jan. 13 debate, in a variation of a theme he has used at campaign events and in previous bids for public office. “We’ve got to sit down and we’ve got to focus on solving problems. That’s what a businessman does. That’s what I’ve done for 40 years.”
So just how successful has Cox been? It’s hard to get a complete picture, though it’s readily apparent that he has built a vast personal fortune.
Cox reported an income of $1.86 million last year, according to a partial 2017 tax return shared by his campaign.
He has also put $5.6 million of his own money into his run for governor so far, more than half of the $10.7 million in contributions that his campaign has reported this election cycle.
Cox declined to participate in this story, and many of his business associates did not respond to interview requests. But in recent ads and campaign rhetoric, he has emphasized humble roots on the South Side of Chicago and a self-made success story, in contrast to moneyed connections that boosted his Democratic rival, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Dan Herren, who worked on Cox’s failed bid for president during the 2008 election, said growing up “on the poorer side” — Cox’s mother was a teacher and his stepfather worked for the postal service — seemed to drive his professional achievement as a real estate investor.
“I understand that he would take properties that were dilapidated or falling apart and fix them up and turn them into affordable housing,” said Herren, a realtor and Republican Party activist in South Carolina who ultimately served as Cox’s national campaign manager. “The feeling I got, working with him, is that he’s got an appreciation for helping people help themselves and not giving a handout.”
After graduating from the University of Illinois, Chicago in 1976 with degrees in political science and accounting, Cox began his career at the public accounting business Coopers & Lybrand. At night, he attended law school at Chicago-Kent College of Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
“I knew I wanted to be financially successful and knew at the time that the best way was to become either a lawyer or a doctor. I was too squeamish to become a doctor and my interest was in public service, so law school it was,” Cox wrote in Politic$, Inc., a book he published in 2006, in anticipation of the presidential campaign on which he would spend more than $1 million.
Upon getting his law degree in 1980, Cox briefly joined a small firm in Chicago. But he branched out on his own within months, establishing a law and accounting office that he continues to own.
“Over the next dozen years, under the guidance of Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, the tax laws were changed about a dozen times, creating great opportunities for a young tax lawyer to advise and re-advise clients of the system’s changing nature,” he wrote in Politic$, Inc. “This was exhausting, but lucrative work that helped my young family enjoy a nice life in Chicago’s suburbs.”
Running unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2003, Cox told the Illinois Leader that “I made my first million before I was 30.”