This chart shows the top five donors to Governor Gavin Newsom’s campaigns and ballot measures and to committees that made independent expenditures in support of his campaigns and measures since he first ran for state office in 2010:
Those donors constitute the oligarchy that really runs the State of California and that Newsom and other establishment politicians protect by maintaining sclerotic governments from which they profit while residents, students and taxpayers languish. Public Sector Unions have been the biggest winners under Newsom, who stood aside while California’s public schools were shut longer than any other state and expanded spending on state employees. Tribal governments got more gaming contracts approved, Healthcare Providers got more spending on healthcare, and Private Sector Unions got more spending on High Speed Rail and hindered efforts to unleash affordable housing construction. Democratic Party Organizations are largely funded by this same oligarchy alongside big business. This is why, despite nearly $2 trillion of new spending and more than 4000 new laws, the state government is more sclerotic than ever and the lives of ordinary Californians have not improved.
Tomorrow Newsom will issue the May Revision to his January Budget Proposal which you can be sure will favor his patrons. California’s next governor and legislature must throw off the oligarchy. They will need a lot of our help to do so.
