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Last year I wrote about GFC’s most expensive failure, which is our continuing lack of success in reforming the public-employee retirement system, and earlier this week CalMatters columnist Dan Walters wrote about what I consider to be collectively our most shameful failure, which was the prolonged shutdown of California’s public schools during the pandemic.

When GFC launched in 2011, Republicans held enough seats in the California Legislature that occasionally they could exercise some leverage by joining with pragmatic Democrats to bridge some gaps.

Last month we wrote you about Friends of the University, a muscular addition to California’s political philanthropy ecosystem that advocates for the University of California, which for far too long has been treated like a doormat by elected state officials.

A number of GFC’ers have asked what traits we seek in the next governor. In short, if the next governor is a Democrat, we would like someone like Gina Raimondo when she served as governor of Rhode Island. If a Republican, we’d like someone like Mitt Romney when he served as governor of Massachusetts.

Yesterday marked the 25th anniversary of the California Legislature’s passage of SB 400, a retroactive pension increase for public employees that constituted the largest single issuance of public debt in California history.

Because a number of GFCers have asked how I’ll be voting on state ballot measures this year, I thought it would be easiest to create a post that you can disregard if not interested.

For years the University of California has been treated like a doormat by the state’s elected officials. That’s because UC supporters have not flexed their political muscles. That’s changing.

Inspired by the success of pragmatic political coalitions in San Francisco, two GFC chapters led by Alistair Thornton and Eli Bildner have identified political giving opportunities in the East Bay.

Earlier this month we wrote to you about $195 billion in annual spending by California governments on compensation and benefits for public employees but that figure did not include spending by counties, which the Mercury News reported yesterday to be $45 billion per year.

Yesterday, GFC’s Statewide Committee donated to Antonio Villaraigosa’s campaign for governor. This doesn’t mean he is our one and only pick for 2026. We also admire some others who could join the race.