The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Prop. 1 is an expensive scam
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who collected unlimited contributions to his campaign to fend off an attempted recall, is collecting again.
This time it’s for “Governor Newsom’s Ballot Measure Committee,” which is currently dedicated to passing Proposition 1 on the March 5 statewide ballot.
The measure is terrible, but the collecting business is going very well.
In January, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria kicked in $1.5 million. In December, contributions of $1 million each came from the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, the California Hospital Committee on Issues Sponsored by the California Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals, and the Members’ Voice of the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California.
Sutter Health donated $1
million in October and another $150,000 in January. The Service Employees International Union Political Education and Action Fund contributed $500,000 in December, and SEIU Local 2015’s PAC added $275,000 more. The California Building Industry Association Issues Committee donated $250,000, and so did the Issues PAC of the California State Council of Laborers.
Blue Shield of California gave $200,000. Elevance Health, together with its affiliate Anthem Blue Cross, donated $125,000.
Uber gave more than $300,000, Doordash threw in $100,000, and Airbnb wrote a check for $50,000.
Five- and six-figure donations came in from associations representing law enforcement officers, dentists, domestic workers, teachers, firefighters, new car dealers, doctors and nurses. Generous donations came in from Dimension Energy, LLC, in Atlanta and the Community Solar Action Fund in Washington, D.C.
Sensing a pattern here? The government of California directly negotiates contracts that determine the pay and benefits of a lot of people. It also legislates mandates that can make the vendors of certain products and services extraordinarily wealthy, or can put them out of business.
When the governor of California comes collecting, he never goes home emptyhanded.
As with the governor’s campaign committee to fight the recall, there is no contribution limit on donations to a ballot measure committee. There’s also no limit on behested payments, a category of giving that Newsom has used to raise huge sums from entities with business before the state.
Newsom asked for and received payments totaling over $4.2 million to fund his 2023 inaugural festivities. The list of donors who made these