Incumbent Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), fighting to survive a Sep. 14 recall election, has raised three times as much campaign cash as all of his more than 40 rivals — combined.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported:
Newsom has raised more than $58.8 million to defend himself in the Sept. 14 recall election, including $49 million for his recall defense committee and another $9.9 million for his 2022 re-election campaign.
That’s nearly three times as much as all of his top GOP challengers combined. And Newsom’s advantage has only grown over time — in June, he had raised about twice as much as the entire Republican field.
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His largest donors include Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who gave $3 million; the Service Employees International Union, which contributed more than $3 million; and the California Teachers Association, the educators’ union that has spent more than $1.8 million to help Newsom survive the recall.
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The six most well-known Republicans have raised about $20.2 million total between their campaigns, even as the field has drawn more prominent figures, such as conservative talk radio host Larry Elder.
Newsom has a built-in fundraising advantage, because state law allows a recalled official to raise unlimited funds. Donors to the governor can give him as much as they want; donors to challengers are limited to $32,400 per individual.
According to Capitol Weekly, Newsom’s recently received an out-of-state donation of $1 million from Connie Ballmer, the wife of former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who owns the L.A. Clippers NBA franchise. That is Newsom’s second-largest donation.
A recent report by the Los Angeles Times showed that Newsom has relied largely on just eight “elite” families to fund his political career over the years: the Guggenhime; Buell; Swig; Marcus; Wilsey & Traina; Fisher; Getty; and Pritzker families.
The cash Newsom has raised will help him as the recall begins in earnest, with the imminent delivery of mail-in ballots to voters. Recent polls show that voters are warming to the idea of recalling him, with Larry Elder, who has raised over $5 million, as the likeliest replacement.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new e-book, We Told You So!: The First 100 Days of Joe Biden’s Radical Presidency. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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