Why California Board of Equalization Races Draw Millions

from Kate WolfeCalMatters

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For a salary of $185,000 a year, Board of Equalization members don’t make much.

By Governor Jerry Brown took the 147-year-old tax commission of most responsibilities in 2017, some former members even advocated for its dissolution. The San Francisco Chronicle insists on its removal every election cycle.

Nevertheless, powerful lobby groups and wealthy individuals—many of them without a say in the board’s decisions— contributed over $3.3 million to the campaigns of three state lawmakers vying for seats on the board this year. Contributions to the assembly Mike Gipson and state Sens. Tom Umberg and Shannon Grove outperformed those of almost all of their rivals, putting the trio in a winning position on Election Day. All three will be voted on in November.

Experts say donors don’t care what office incumbents run for — they’ll support them no matter what. Instead, donations are coming for two reasons: Special interests still need lawmakers on their side for the remainder of the legislative session, which runs through August, and they want to reward lawmakers for supporting their cause.

“It shows the world that you’re going to support the people who supported you,” said Mike Gatto, a former Democratic lawmaker from Los Angeles. “That way it’s a little bit of a message to other people.”

Digital Democracy’s analysis of records shows that the main source of donations for all three comes from professional groups, unions and people with businesses before the Legislature, including some whose legislation they have supported in the past.

Labor backs a staunch ally

Gipson, a Democrat from Gardena, has raised about $942,000 from major donors, according to the secretary of state, outpacing some of his rivals: Progressive Democrat Samuel Succaton, who is second, brought in just $32,000. Democrat Yvonne Yiu largely self-funded her campaign, supplementing some big donations with a $760,000 infusion from her own fortune, but she didn’t make it through November.

Gipson’s biggest source of fundraising funds was labor — dozens of unions, including those representing construction, carpenters, police, teachers and public employees, gave a total of nearly $300,000.

Gipson and the other two lawmakers say they have plans to make the most of the seat, which has very few responsibilities and meets with other members once or twice a month.

The board oversees the state’s 58 county tax assessors, assesses property tax on certain parcels that cross county lines, and hears property tax appeals. He then lost many of his other powers 2017 audit found the agency bloated with professional and cultural problems, but could only be abolished through a constitutional amendment that voters would have to approve.

It also has strict campaign finance limits, a holdover from when it had more than 4,000 employees and collected about a third of the state’s tax revenue. Unlike the legislature, if members of the Board of Equalization receive contributions from groups whose interests intersect with a decision, they must recuse themselves.

“It’s not like there are stakeholders saying, ‘Oh, I’m going to support this candidate who’s going to support my cause in the future,'” said Board of Equalization Deputy Chief Cody Peterson, who is also running for a seat on the select board covering the San Diego area. “It’s not a thing.”

During his time in the Legislature, Gipson has been a staunch union ally, voting with the Service Employees International Union and its affiliates 90 percent of the time, according to Digital Democracy. In 2024, the affiliate representing nurses thank him publicly to draft a bill to improve the safety of hospital workers. That gave him the maximum $19,600 for his application to the Board of Equalization.

The fitter also carries Assembly Bill 1054 this year that would provide a new end-of-career benefit for California Highway Patrol officers and state firefighters that would allow them to retire with a large lump sum apart from their pensions. The bill is sponsored by unions for both professions and is intended to be a cost-neutral tool to retain agencies, although cities that have approved such programs, find them yes costing taxpayers more.

Gipson received nearly $16,000 from the highway patrol union and $10,000 from the California Professional Fire Fighters PAC for his Board of Equalization bid. Neither organization responded to a request for comment.

Gipson’s campaign spokesman Adam Roebuck did not respond to multiple requests for comment, and Gipson did not respond to an inquiry left with his office.

Lawyers rally for influential Democrat

In the race to represent Orange County and the San Diego area, Umberg transferred about $1.1 million from his existing campaign accounts and raised another $598,000 between December 2025 and this month’s election. Tens of thousands came from lawyers, law firms and professional advocacy groups such as the Consumer Attorneys of California, which Umberg usually joins and which regularly take business before the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, which he chairs.

One of the biggest donors to the Umberg Equalization Council’s campaign — topping out at $19,600 — was John Manley, a prominent advocate for child survivors of sexual abuse.

“No one has been a stronger voice for victims of childhood sexual abuse than (Umberg) as chairman of the Judiciary Committee,” Manley said when reached by phone. He said Umberg’s nonpartisanship made him “exactly the type of politician we need.”

Umberg has supported laws that allow more people to sue for child sexual abuse, including a 2023 proposal that ended the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases and another that would specifically allow lawsuits against county detention centers, the latter of which Manley’s firm lobbied for. Local authorities, is already straining under a landmark 2019 law that reopened many sexual-assault lawsuits, opposed both bills.

Republican Dennis Bilodeau will be Umberg’s opponent in November after receiving 45 percent of the district’s vote. The president of the taxpayer association was backed by San Diego Assemblyman Carl DeMaio’s powerful Reform California group and used $100,000 of his own money for his campaign. Peterson, Umberg’s Democratic opponent, came in third behind the lawmaker, garnering 18 percent of the vote. He said he spent about $30,000 on the race.

In an email, Umberg said donations to his campaign were not made with the expectation of special treatment.

“I have never made a legislative decision based on who contributed to my campaign, and I never will,” he said.

Sean McMorris, transparency, ethics and accountability program manager for California Common Cause, a good governance group, said these types of donations are inherently suspect.

“It’s a fair assumption for the public to say, well, hey, this is essentially payback,” he said. “You voted, you gave me some goodies when you were in office. I’m returning the favor by now giving you the maximum contribution I can to your campaign.”

Bakersfield business back in the Grove

The most competitive Council of Equalization race to represent inland California will be a showdown between Grove and Nelson Esparza, a Democratic Fresno City Councilman. Democrats have 4% voter registration advantage over Republicans in the district.

The Grove brought in almost $1.8 million from major donors, many of them Central Valley businesses and business owners. Her fundraising far eclipsed that of Esparza, who brought in $186,000.

Grove, a 2018 Republican senator from Bakersfield, has long championed the interests of agriculture and oil production in the Central Valley. She was a vocal supporter of a a deal made last year to allow Kern County to approve up to 2,000 new oil well drilling permits per year.

Since she created her account with the Board of Equalization in 2023, she has received more than $76,000 from oil and gas executives, companies and industry groups, including Signal Hill Petroleum, Valero and California Resources Corporation, according to Digital Democracy.

One significant donor was Cyrus Mojibi, the president of the San Joaquin Refining Company, who gave a total of $17,300, most recently in December 2025.

In February Grove author Senate Bill 1039which may ease pollutant monitoring requirements for certain refineries. Mojibi was one of the main supporting witnessestelling the Commission on Environmental Quality that the existing requirements are a huge cost burden.

Grove also received more than $120,000 from agricultural companies, trade groups and executives, including more than $10,000 from the American Pistachio Growers PAC and $5,000 from the Wonderful Company.

The senator has consistently advocated for the state to increase water availability for Central Valley farmers, including copyright law to reduce red tape around water infrastructure projects.

Dwayne Dicharia, a spokesman for Grove, said the senator’s actions were not tied in any way to campaign contributions.

“Shannon has spent her career fighting higher taxes, government waste and bureaucratic overreach, and donors support her because they want the same approach across the board,” he said in an email.

Can California Cut Big Money in Politics?

Sally Lieber, a former state assemblywoman running for the only district without an incumbent legislator in the race, said she’s thankful she’s not in a “big money race.” Lieber was elected to her first term on the board in 2022, after several years away from elected office.

She said incumbent lawmakers have a huge advantage when it comes to fundraising, but the phenomenon is a double-edged sword because there is a constant expectation on party leadership to raise money for other candidates and causes.

“I found the constant drive to raise money extremely off-putting and stressful,” she said of her time in the Legislature. “You were just constantly needed for production.”

Some incumbent lawmakers are also unhappy with the status quo of big-donor-funded campaigns.

Thanks to a co-authored bill by Umberg last year, voters are expected to weigh in November whether the state should create a public campaign finance system.

McMorris said the legislature worked with Common Cause on the ballot measure.

“There are politicians, even though they play this game because they feel they have to, they don’t like it either,” McMorris said. “I think many of them would prefer an alternative system where they don’t have to accommodate special interests to be viable.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.