Tom Steyer leads California governor’s race on spending – CalMatters

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Tom Steyer, the billionaire environmental activist and self-described progressive candidate for governor, is on track to run the most expensive gubernatorial campaign in state history, having already spent more than $132 million.

It has saturated the Internet and television as so-called special interest groups ramp up their advertising ahead of the June 2 primary and county officials prepare to launch mail-in ballots.

Campaign finance returns filed Thursday night show that through mid-April, Steyer continued to spend twenty to thirty times more than his opponents, mainly to flood the state with television ads that began airing early in the race. Almost all of the money came from Steyer himself, who poured $105 million into the campaign between January and April 18.

It already far exceeded the $73 million spent by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s campaign to fight a 2021 recall election against him, and exceeded the amount Newsom’s political committee spent last fall to pass Proposition 50, the Democratic filibuster initiative that has generated strong national interest.

If Steyer continues at this pace, he is likely to approach or even surpass the record $159 million that former eBay CEO Meg Whitman blew — much of it her own money — on her failed 2010 gubernatorial bid.

Campaign finance reports show his challenger, tech-backed San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, has outpaced his fellow Democrats in fundraising over the past four months, taking in $13 million. Former Rep. Katie Porter raised $2.8 million during that period, while former Attorney General Xavier Becerra raised $1 million, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa raised $707,000 and Public Schools Superintendent Tony Thurmond raised just $62,000.

On the Republican side, conservative TV commentator Steve Hilton’s campaign reported raising $4.4 million, while Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco raised $1.5 million. Both remain at the top of the polls.

Steyer’s lavish spending is a flashpoint in a race marked by California’s wealth, inequality and affordability crisis. Progressives are alarmed to tax billionaires this year ; The resulting backlash to these proposals led wealthy Silicon Valley executives such as Google’s Sergey Brin and venture capitalist Michael Moritz to spend large sums of money on this election.

Steyer promises to rein in wealthy interests like them and corporations. He states that he will realize universal health system publicly funded, will reduce electricity bills and would raise business property taxes to fund government services.

His fortune comes from a hedge fund that previously invested in fossil fuels and private prisons before turning to liberal activism. It’s both a pretext for criticism from his opponents across the political spectrum and an unexpected source of credibility as a progressive. She was able to convince several left-wing groups, such as the California Nurses Association and the political action committee Our Revolution, founded by Bernie Sanders, that she would not allow herself to be bought off by vested interests, which won her their support. His ads helped elevate his standing among potential voters, going from unknown to prominent among Democrats.

Democrats remain tied

However, it does not stand out from the rest and in recent polls He remains virtually tied with the rest of the Democrats, just behind the two Republican front-runners, Bianco and Hilton.

On the other hand, after withdrawal from battle It was Becerra who experienced a significant boost in support this month from the other favorite, Congressman Eric Swwell, due to allegations of assault and sexual misconduct brought by several women. The former Biden-era health secretary was hovering around 5 percent in the polls and raising little money before getting a boost from small donors when Swawell’s campaign collapsed just two weeks ago.

Becerra has rebounded enough in the polls to participate in the first of a series of televised debates Wednesday night. During the debate, he was eager to attack his opponents, but drew criticism for his lack of concrete policy proposals and for giving Newsom an “A” for his efforts to address the homeless problem. The number of homeless Californians has risen steadily during Newsom’s nearly eight years in office.

Becerra will need to continue raising funds to remain competitive. His campaign spent four times what it raised between January and April 18 and finished the cycle with just $507,000 as the race entered its most expensive stretch.

Porter, a former Orange County congresswoman who has been trailing in the polls, has raised less than in the second half of last year. But it still has $3.7 million.

Besides Steyer, Mahan has raised the most funds in the past four months. Little known in the state, his platform focuses on making state government more efficient. He promised not to raise taxes, end the state gas tax and tie the salaries of state agency heads to their performance.

His campaign is funded by a select list of Silicon Valley executives, billionaires and groups known for clashing with powerful unions in Sacramento. They also fund two independent political expenditure committees supporting Mahan, which have raised $25 million and spent $19 million on ads through April 18.

Other interest groups are also increasing their spending. An anti-Steyer group funded by realtors, the construction industry, the electricians union and state-owned Pacific Gas & Electric has spent $14 million on ads attacking Steyer’s past investments. This week, PG&E and the California Chamber of Commerce invested another $7 million. Steyer proposed challenging PG&E’s monopoly to lower Californians’ utility bills.

Swawell used campaign funds to pay a lawyer

The documents also reveal that Swawell used campaign funds to pay one of the lawyers defending him against allegations of misconduct.

His campaign paid $40,000 to Sarah Azari, who sent out press releases denying the allegations after he had already suspended his campaign and appeared on NewsNation where she works as a legal analyst, suggesting that her accusers were “ashamed” or “repentant” but that “doesn’t make it rape”.

Swawell had also used at least two other law firms to send threatening letters to women and others alleging misconduct; those law firms do not appear in his campaign finance disclosures.

His gubernatorial campaign has returned $54,000 in donations since his defeat. Of the $5.5 million he has raised in the past four months, tens of thousands have come since the allegations against him came to light on April 10. Several donors, including the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and California Dairies, Inc., made large donations the day after he dropped out of the race.

Swawell set aside campaign funds to use his own artificial intelligence startup to fund the campaign and cover about $22,000 in child care expenses, something he and his wife routinely did for years with their congressional campaign account. This is permitted under federal and California campaign finance law as long as the child care needs are related to the campaign; Swawell was one of the biggest contributors in this area.