Gov. Gavin Newsom’s campaign team solicited millions in campaign donations from state vendors, their key leaders, and employees, or their affiliated corporate political action committees, according to a new report.
“Strictly speaking, it's not illegal but I think there's a distinction to be drawn between something being illegal and something being unethical and clearly here this kind of activity falls into the latter category,” said Timothy Snowball, litigation counsel with the Freedom Foundation.
OpenTheBooks.com auditors found that in return for $10.5 million in campaign donations, 979 vendors secured $6.2 million in state contracts or payments. Election cycles included 2010, 2018, the recall election, and 2022.
“These folks, who have doled out some 40% over the last 10 years for Governor Newsom's campaign war chest are directly on the dole to the state for money,” Snowball told the Southern California Record. “If you are soliciting funds from organizations or individuals who you know depend upon the state that you're in charge of for money, that is incestuous.”
The study also found that in 2021, the top 10 California state vendors included Anthem Blue Cross, which gave $69,305 in campaign donations and received $844.9 million in state payments, United Health Group, which donated $120,900 and received $544.2 million in state payments while Bank of America donated $13,000, and received $508.7 million in state payments.
“It's outrageous and, after the recall, the governor is in a very strong perceived position politically,” Snowball said. “Perhaps in a state that quite frankly cares more about the ethics or morals of their chief executive, this could be a real problem for him but unfortunately under the current circumstances, I don't know how much this is going to matter to the average voter or to the governor, quite frankly, because he's already running for president perhaps.”
Finally, OpentheBooks determined that the top nine law firms gave $198,142 in campaign donations and received $28.6 million in state payments.
The law firms included Nixon Peabody, which gave $94,272 and received nearly $2.2 million in payments; Perkins Coie, which gave $36,400 and received $1.4 million in payments; and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, which donated $31,710 to Newsom and received $4.3 million in state payments.
"This kind of back-scratching and one-hand-washes-the-other is not entirely unexpected when it comes to politics, but at least as far as our founding fathers were concerned, the system was supposed to be set up in such a way that the personal ambition of individual politicians would not be able to rise to this kind of level," Snowball added.