Megadonors play big role in bid to recall Newsom
Conservative fundraising arms. Big tech venture capitalists. Real estate investors. And a whole lot of retirees.
Organizers of the campaign to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom have boasted that the effort is fueled by grassroots supporters angry about pandemic restrictions and the governor’s attendance at a dinner party that defied his own administration’s guidelines.
But the financial engine of the recall campaign has been less populist and largely driven by megadonors writing sixfigure checks.
Of the nearly $4 million that recall organizers say they have raised, more than half has come from two dozen contributors — wealthy individuals, deeppocketed companies and Repub
lican groups.
Large contributions poured in over the past three months as the recall effort became a statewide and national Republican cause celebre, boosted by regular segments on Fox News and other conservative outlets.
The effort received $185,000 from the California Republican Party after it got a cash infusion from the National Republican Committee; $109,000 from the Lincoln Club of Orange County, a prominent GOP group; and $100,000 from Huck PAC, the committee for Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas Republican governor and current commentator.
Dan Newman, a consultant for Newsom’s planned 2022 reelection campaign, said the contributions show the effort is being latched onto by national Republicans eager for an issue after losing the White House.
“This is a national Republican cause. The extreme right wing of the Republican Party has embraced this,” Newman said. “It’s sort of a backdoor way to force California to have a (Donald) Trump supporter as governor.”
Leaders of the recall effort say the attempt to paint it as driven by national Republican groups is misguided. The two main committees behind the recall say they have about 27,000 donors combined.
Information about many of those individual donors isn’t required to be reported because they gave less than $100 apiece. Anne Dunsmore, campaign manager for Rescue California ... Recall Gavin Newsom, said the campaign has received a flood of small contributions in the mail since the state’s last reporting deadline, with an average donation of $36.50.
“This movement is born and raised in California,” she said.
At least 8% of the money raised by the two committees has come from outside California, with the largest portion from Huckabee’s operation in Arkansas. Money has also come from contributors in Nevada, Kansas, Texas and Arizona.
Dunsmore said that, if anything, she’s surprised the effort hasn’t received more national support. She said many outofstate donors were probably former California residents who were fed up and left.
“What starts here rolls across the country,” she said. “And if (Newsom’s) type of governance is allowed to prevail, then everybody’s in for a whole lot of misery across the country, so we are trying to stop it here.”
Among California residents, tech venture capitalists have made many of the largest contributions, including billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya, the former Facebook executive and founder of Social Capital who gave $100,000 and briefly considered running in a recall election.
Other contributors in the tech field include Doug Leone, a billionaire and partner at Sequoia Capital, and his wife, Patricia PerkinsLeone; San Francisco venture capitalist Dixon Doll and his wife, Carol Doll; and David Sacks, a partner at Craft Ventures and former PayPal executive, and his wife, Jacqueline Sacks, who runs a clothing company.
All gave between $90,000 and $100,000. Bay Area mega-contributors have given more than $500,000 to the recall effort combined.
David McCuan, head of the political science department at Sonoma State University, said the recall has morphed into a sophisticated operation and isn’t just “citizens with pitchforks.”
“To put the movement over the top, to cinch the recall in terms of qualification, you need elements of a citizen uprising framed by, funded by professional givers or a professional network,” McCuan said.
“What you bring with that is not just money,” he said. “You bring resources, you bring a network.”
Recall organizers have spent much of the money gathering signatures to force an election onto the ballot. They have mailed petitions to millions of voters, primarily registered Republicans and some independents.
As of Feb. 5, organizers had submitted 668,202 valid signatures from registered voters, according to the California secretary of state’s office. They must submit about 1.5 million by March 17, though they’ll probably need closer to 2 million total signatures to make up for ones that are invalid.
The recall campaign has also been fueled by contributions from real estate investors, including $150,000 from Geoff Palmer, a Los Angeles developer and top Trump donor, and $99,500 from Hofmann Land Development Co. in Walnut Creek.
Lisa Hofmann Morgan, the company’s president, said the firm plans to contribute “more to stop this nonsense.” She said Newsom’s policies have caused employers to flee the state.
Some of the recall’s largest contributors have been a source of mystery. One contributor, listed as DGB Ranch, gave $150,000, but the Los Angelesbased entity isn’t a registered company with the state and has no apparent online presence.
Another contribution for $500,000 was attributed to Prov. 3:9 LLC, a littleknown Irvine firm, which last month revealed its sole donor to be a man named John Kruger. A spokesman said Kruger contributed because he believed California’s pandemic restrictions on indoor worship services violated religious freedom.
Beyond topdollar donors, the recall has largely drawn support from retirees. About 45% of contributors who listed an occupation were retired.
“These are the Baby Boomer donors,” said the recall campaign’s Dunsmore. “They do not want to leave here. It’s putting their dreams of retirement in jeopardy.”
Randy Economy, a spokesman for California Patriot Coalition, another committee behind the recall, said that although the effort has raised millions, “it’s pennies compared to the multimillions” typically spent in state elections.
Newsom is “the one who needs to take a good look in the mirror in regards to how he’s raised money and the special interests he’s raised from over the years and his entire career,” Economy said.