Kasich hauls in $100,000 checks from these folks

Gov. John Kasich’s superPAC got another $335,000 over the past quarter — virtually all from a trio of $100,000 checks cut by Californians.

As the GOP governor draws closer to the time when he’ll have to decide whether he’s really going to take another stab at the presidency in 2020, the haul from July-September was almost four times as much as his political action committee had raised the first six months of the year.

One of Kasich’s 100K men — Kevin Clifford, president and CEO at American Funds Distributors in Los Angeles — had poured $1.3 million into a related Kasich super-PAC during Kasich’s 2016 presidential run. Other executives at Clifford’s privately held company, which manages more than $1.6 trillion, had given more than $1.7 million in the past.

Another person writing a six-figure check was cybersecurity expert Ted Schlein of Menlo Park, California, managing and general partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byer and ranked No. 86 on Forbes’ top tech investors. He was a member of the 2016 Kasich campaign’s National Security Advisory Group, co-chaired a Bay-Area fundraiser in early 2016 (along with the father of Kasich’s longtime buddy and venture capitalist Mark Kvamme) and gave at least $500,000 to his Kasich presidential effort two years ago.

The third $100,000 donation came from Stephen J. Luczo, the executive chair of the Cupertino data-storage giant Seagate. He also gave Kasich’s PAC $200,000 in 2017.

The super-PAC supporting the governor, who often appears on national news shows, spent nearly $9,000 for airfare during the three-month period. It also paid more than $1,000 for rooms Aug. 1 at a hotel near the White House with a rooftop pool and bar-restaurant; more than $1,600 for food and beverages for a fundraiser Aug. 31 at the Refectory in Columbus; $354 for greens fees Aug. 8 at the Double Eagle Golf Club near Galena; and $464 on Sept. 29 to reimburse Seth Andrew Klarman, president and CEO of hedge-fund manager Beaupost Group in Boston, for baseball tickets.

Kasich’s organization also continues to pay Texas consultant John Weaver (whose firm is called The Network Companies) $10,000 a month; $5,000 a month goes to Red Tack Strategies, formed by spokesman Chris Schrimpf and his brother.

Kasich’s still-existing campaign committee, which unlike the super-PAC has limits on what it can accept, took in about $130,000 last quarter via 187 contributions from across the country.

The roughly $650,000 that Kasich has at his disposal from both organizations compares to $106 million already accumulated by President Donald Trump.