Oh my, the angry reactions we’ve gotten to a simple act of arithmetic: Tallying how much of other people’s money Gov. Gavin Newsom has steered to his favorite charities (including some tied to his wife).
Read more Trump says 6 people have been arrested for damaging the Reflecting Pool
“You call that reporting?” a Carona del Mar gent wrote to us. “You might get MAGA points, but you should be ashamed of yourself for writing this misleading and COMPLETELY unsubstantiated accusations of misdeeds. You didn’t present any receipts! NONE! That’s not reporting. That’s journalistic garbage. Remember, Trump is 80. Like I, he will die, and your journalistic career will be at an end! You need to take a look in your mirror, young lady.”
Well, we’re not MAGA. Or particularly young. But we certainly did the reporting and we presented the cold hard data from the Fair Political Practices Commission, which scoops it all up and publishes it in a database. To recap, since 2011 California lawmakers have asked corporations and individuals (often with business in and before the state) to donate more than a half-billion dollars ($555.9 million, to be exact) to ostensibly good causes.
While the overwhelming majority of these encouraged gifts came at Newsom’s behest — a perhaps-staggering $348.2 million — he is far from alone. Dozens of other lawmakers asked folks and businesses to dig deep into their pockets and give millions of dollars as well.
-Coming in right behind Newsom at No. 2 is former Gov. Jerry Brown, who wrangled up $35.5 million for his favs.
-At No. 3 was Brian Maienschein, former Assembly member who represented northeastern San Diego from 2012 to 2024. Donors gave $12.7 million in his name.
-No. 4 was Attorney General Rob Bonta, at $7.4 million.
-Mike McGuire, state senator whose district stretches from San Francisco Bay to the Oregon border, was No. 5 at $6.5 million.
-Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis clocked in at No. 6 at $6.2 million.
-Also of note: Secretary of State Shirley Weber at No. 9 with $4.8 million; and former Vice President Kamala Harris at No. 27 with $1.9 million.
You can see all the nitty gritty detail about who gave what to whom, and why, and in the name of which lawmaker, right here: and https://bit.ly/3SVdLnE. (You can search this document by lawmaker name, but be warned: It’s nearly 1,000 pages long!)
Here’s a summary sheet, which includes totals by lawmaker, from largest to smallest. It’s only nine pages long and at and bit.ly/4xIBmb7.
Most donations went to bona fide charities — which can qualify them as tax deductions — as well as to arms of government and political parties and committees.
Donations came from 800-pound gorillas like Meta, Google, Microsoft, Toyota, Comcast, Airbnb, McDonald’s, Eli Lilly, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Edison International, Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric, Pacific Gas & Electric, major health insurers, oil companies, broadcasters, every public employee union you can imagine and, when we say the list goes on and on, we mean it really does go on and on. And on.
Read more AI chatbots hit the dating scene, becoming the lovelorn’s modern-day Cyrano
Slimy, but legal
Those who want to stay in the good graces of the powerful — such as, say, these companies and unions, which must abide by state rules and regulations, seek contracts, etc. — view these “behested payments” as a great opportunity to gain favor and influence. Which feels slimy, but is legal.
“A lot of the justification is, ‘The ends justify the means,’ because the money is usually going to a good cause,” Sean McMorris, the Transparency, Ethics and Accountability program manager for California Common Cause, told us last week.
“But the means do matter. If the ends have to justify the means, then the means are probably questionable.”
It’s worth noting here that Orange County lawmakers are not big behesters, according to the FPPC data:
Former Sen. Josh Newman was down past No. 100, with $288,378 in behests.
Even lower were current and former Assemblymembers and Senators from both parties, including Cottie Petrie-Norris at $208,410; Sharon Qurik-Silva, $203,080; Diane Harkey, $142,448; Tri Ta, $122,195; Avelino Valencia, $111,379; Tony Strickland, $96,610; Janet Nguyen, $96,000; Tom Umberg, $94,255; Laurie Davies, $78,635; Pat Bates, $75,271; Catherine Blakespear, $63,000; Jim Silva, $49,198; Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, $47,867; Tom Day, $45,000; Diane Dixon, $41,000; and Lou Correa, $40,014.
For fun, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger clocked in at $120,125.
Note that, if businesses or people want to make a donation to charity, there is nothing in the world stopping them from doing it in their own names. But making them this way, attached to the names of powerful lawmakers, is icky (our word) and “ripe for abuse” (McMorris of Common Cause’s words).
Fred Smoller, associate professor of political science at Chapman University, put it this way: “Behests reinforce the notion that government serves politically connected insiders rather than the average person. This undermines citizen faith in government.”
Indeed. But readers engaged in a bit of “what about-ism” over all this nonetheless.
“So Trump gives pardons in exchange for contributions, steers billions to himself and his family including from foreign governments and the US government, steers $50 billion in government contracts to donors to his ballroom and you’re writing about Governor Newsom steering money to CHARITIES (real ones by the way, not like the Trump Foundation which the New York AG had to dissolve-read the Wikipedia entry about the Donald Trump Foundation and findings against the Trump family),” another reader noted.
Slime certainly operates on orders of magnitude. All of it, in our humble opinion, stinks. And despite the angry responses, many readers agreed.
“These ‘behest” contributions may be legal, but there is the matter of ethics,” another said. “If you follow the money trail, some of these contributions have been rewarded with political favors.”
Read more Savannah Guthrie says family remains ‘in agony’ over missing mom, begs the public for tips
We wonder why no one has ever asked us to make a behest in a lawmaker’s name?