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With less than three weeks of the California recall election, the campaign combating efforts to oust Gov. Gavin Newsom has established a sizable lead in terms of money raised – with local donors playing a major role.
Even though none of the 46 candidates vying to replace Newsom are from the Midpeninsula, residents of the area are leading the way when it comes to raising money to fight the recall, according to campaign fundraising data from the Secretary of State Shirley Weber.
Of the roughly $ 58 million the main anti-recall campaign has raised to date, the vast majority has come from unions and statewide political action committees. At the same time, more than $ 3.4 million came from individuals in the Midpeninsula towns of Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Redwood City, Portola Valley and Woodside. This includes $ 1.43 million from Palo Alto donors, an area that includes, among others, top tech executives, philanthropists, developers and investors.
The biggest local donor – by far – was Georges marcus, founder of real estate firm Marcus & Millichap Company and longtime donor to Democratic causes. Marcus donated $ 1 million to the anti-recall campaign, Stop the Republican Recall. Of all of Newsom’s individual donors, only Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, contributed more to the cause: $ 3 million.
Hastings, Marcus and Connie Balmer, a Washington resident who contributed $ 1 million to oppose the recall, are the only individuals on the list of top 16 donors to the anti-recall campaign. Others on the list include the California Democratic Party, which donated $ 2.15 million to oppose the recall; Dignity Service Employees International Union Local 2015, which contributed $ 2 million; the California Teachers Association’s Independent Expenditure Committee, which donated $ 1.8 million; and the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, Truth in American Government Fund, which contributed $ 1.75 million.
Marcus, well known for his Democratic activism, is hardly the only donor in this region to make a significant contribution to the campaign against the recall. Atherton philanthropist Elizabeth D. Simons, chair of the board of directors of the Heising-Simons Foundation, made two contributions to the committee for a total of $ 575,000. Her husband, Mark Heising, founder of investment firm Medley Partners, contributed an additional $ 425,000.
Other notable residents of Palo Alto who contributed to the anti-recall campaign are Laurene Powell Jobs, president of Emerson Collective, who donated $ 400,000 to the committee known as Stop the Republican Recall. Marissa Mayer, former CEO of Yahoo, and former CEO of Google Eric Schmidt, who now heads investment firm Hillspire LLC, contributed $ 200,000 and $ 100,000, respectively.
The anti-recall committee also benefited from contributions from Redwood City investor Doris Fisher, who donated $ 250,000, and developer Richard Tod Spieker, an Atherton resident who contributed $ 100,000 to keep Newsom in power. . Other local developers who have helped support Newsom include John Sobrato, who donated $ 6,000 over two separate contributions, and Peter Pao, who contributed $ 500.
They are among more than 2,000 Midpeninsula backers who have donated to fight the recall effort, helping the anti-recall campaign establish a significant fundraising lead over those of Newsom’s challengers. for the post of governor. The overwhelming majority are small donors. Of the contributions reported as of August 25, all but 32 were for amounts of $ 1,000 or less.
Several of Newsom’s 46 opponents of the recall effort also benefited from local largesse. Talk show host Larry Elder, who amassed a $ 6.8 million war chest, is one of them. Although his list of top donors is dominated by contributors from Southern California, Elder also received $ 32,400 in contributions from Saul Fox, CEO of Fox Paine, a resident of Woodside; $ 5,000 from Palo Alto investor William Jarvis; and a $ 2,000 contribution from local developer Boyd Smith.
Woodside resident Stacey Siebel, a philanthropist whose husband, Thomas Siebel, founded software company Siebel Systems, donated $ 5,000 to Elder’s campaign. She also contributed $ 25,000 to the campaign of Kevin Faulconer, the former mayor of San Diego who also hopes to replace Newsom.
Despite these efforts, the total amount raised by Elder of the Midpeninsula campaign is only a fraction of that received by the anti-recall faction. Donors from the towns of Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Woodside and Portola Valley accounted for $ 79,575 in contributions received by Elder.
Businessman John Cox said $ 7.7 million in contributions, although $ 6.9 million was money he donated to his own campaign. Its biggest contributor from the Midpeninsula region was the construction company De Anza Building and Maintenance based in Sunnyvale, which gave Cox $ 32,400 (as state law caps contributions to gubernatorial candidates at $ 32,400, this rule does not apply to contributions made by political parties or by political action committees that are not linked to a particular candidate). No one else in the Midpeninsula has given more than $ 100 to the Cox campaign, according to financial records.
The biggest Faulconer supporter in the area is John Chambers, a resident of Palo Alto, who has contributed $ 32,400 to Faulconer. Los Altos Hills resident Douglas Scrivener contributed $ 17,500, while Woodside resident Michael Marks donated $ 15,000, according to records.
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