#campaign-finance

#campaign-finance

Initial fundraising reports from the first week of Matt Mahan's gubernatorial campaign filed Tuesday reveal the depth of support for the moderate Democrat from Silicon Valley executives and venture capitalists. Reports filed with the California Secretary of State show just 21 individuals contributed more than $1.6 million to Matt Mahan for Governor 2026 in the first two days of his campaign.

Recent campaign finance reports show Mahan has raised more than $2 million, though he has touted raising a total of $7 million so far on social media. Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale and YCombinator CEO Garry Tan are among the Silicon Valley elite who maxed out their legally-allowed contributions - $78,400 each - into Mahan's governor campaign in January. David Baszucki, the billionaire CEO of the gaming platform Roblox, and his wife Jan gave a combined $156,800 to Mahan's campaign, records show.

OAKLAND Federal prosecutors have signaled they may call a San Leandro city councilman as a witness in the upcoming bribery and fraud trial against former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and the men accused of bribing her. The revelation by Assistant U.S. Attorney Abraham Fine came as hints emerged during a federal court hearing Thursday of broader corruption across the East Bay, particularly in Oakland.

Lee's disclosure seems to indicate she's going to run for a full term. The mayor raised $31,863 in the second half of 2025, according to a report filed with the city on Monday. She spent just under $6,000, mostly on routine office and professional services. It's a small amount compared to her total haul in 2025 for the special election - $580,000 - but it's far more than any of the possible challengers already in the race have raised.

The Chronicle reports today that Lurie has spent $870,000 out of his own pocket since taking office in early 2025, with most of that sum going to outside speechwriters, PR consultants, and top advisers to the centrist political agitator group GrowSF. More specifically, the Chronicle found that Lurie's own personal dollars were spent getting advice from local PR firm Szabo and Associates ($130,000), Democratic mega-consultant Lis Smith ($50,000), speechwriter Jennifer Pitts ($60,000), and political consultant Tyler Law ($60,000), among others.

Following the money shows some big ties to real estate for incumbent Karen Bass heading into Los Angeles' June mayoral race. Campaign contribution filings, the most recent of which were due Monday for the reporting period through Dec. 31, show Bass in a big lead having raised $2.4 million since sending out her first fundraising email in the summer of 2024.

An investigative subcommittee of the Ethics panel released a 59-page report last week detailing a litany of allegations against Cherfilus-McCormick. Most notably, it said there is "substantial" evidence to back up criminal charges the Florida Democrat is facing that she laundered a $5 million government contract overpayment to her family business and funneled it into her congressional campaign. The report also alleged instances of misreporting campaign finances, accepting illegal donations, improper employment practices and steering federal funding towards allies and associates.

That Supreme Court decision, Buckley v. Valeo, happens to turn 50 years old this week. It's Buckley, and not the often-excoriated 2010 Roberts court decision in Citizens United v. FEC, that created the conditions for the ultrawealthy to transform their vastly unequal economic power into lopsided political power, and for a billionaire like Elon Musk to contribute a staggering $291 million to help elect Republican candidates, including Donald Trump, in 2024.

It's very nice for Larry Stone if he's paying only $3,000 a year in property taxes on a $3.8 million home. I'm guessing he has a very nice pension, too. However, property taxes are a significant burden on other seniors like me, who pay more than five times as much on a much cheaper house, and with a limited fixed income. In fact, my Social Security income isn't even sufficient to cover my property taxes.

According to Oxfam International's "Resisting the Rule of the Rich: Protecting Freedom from Billionaire Power" report this week, a billionaire boom has coincided with the rise of the richest exerting political influence, with billionaires 4,000 times more likely to hold office than less wealthy people globally. And if those billionaires aren't running for office, they're pouring money into campaigns. Per Oxfam, one in six dollars spent by all U.S. candidates, parties, and committees in the 2024 elections came from 100 billionaire families.

"If the people are paying, you owe them," Glazer interjected.

Venture capitalist Peter Thiel has written his biggest political check in years, donating $3 million to a California business group leading the fight against a proposed billionaire wealth tax. The move positions the Palantir co-founder as one of the earliest and most prominent financiers of an emerging campaign to stop the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act before it reaches voters. Thiel made the $3 million contribution on December 29 to the California Business Roundtable,

The claims have been made by a former Reform councillor, who the party said was expelled several months ago. Richard Everett, a former member of Farage's campaign team, told the Daily Telegraph he believes Reform exceeded the 20,660 spending limit set by electoral law in the Essex constituency and failed to declare some costs, although he said Farage was "blissfully unaware" of the omissions.

The dairy industry sought a deal with President Richard Nixon to write a huge campaign check to his reelection campaign-in exchange for price supports that would artificially raise the cost of milk. But federal law strictly limited the amount it could donate. So Nixon's henchmen devised a workaround: Dairy companies would funnel $2 million through various Republican Party committees, which could then transfer the cash to Nixon's campaign.

Sacramento lobbyist Greg Campbell pleaded guilty Thursday to a conspiracy charge tied to a federal investigation of Democratic political operatives. The case involves Gov. Gavin Newsom's former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, and a former advisor to gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra. The three allegedly conspired to siphon funds from Becerra's dormant state campaign account between February 2022 and September 2024.

What changed? Republicans long characterized Silicon Valley as a bastion of liberalism. But over the past half-decade, many of tech's wealthiest titans rebelled against the Biden administration's criticism and policing of their industry. Last year, many tech barons threw their support behind the GOP, which they saw as more aligned with their often-libertarian ideals and their companies' economic interests.

A commentary in the Opinion section of Sunday's newspaper, Bay Area local leaders need protection against violence, mischaracterized details of a state law, due to inaccurate information provided by the League of Women Voters of Oakland.

A defendant in the bribery and corruption case surrounding former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao allegedly took a secret, compromising video of Attorney General Rob Bonta. That's just one of the explosive accusations in a letter obtained by ABC7 I-Team's Dan Noyes that appears to have sped up the FBI investigation. The letter may also help to explain why the Bonta spent $468,000 of campaign contributions on legal fees, to help him deal with FBI investigators.

Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) was indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday for allegedly stealing $5 million in FEMA funds and using a substantial portion of the dough to fund her 2022 campaign to join the House of Representatives. The Justice Department said Cherfilus-McCormick's family healthcare company received a $5 million overpay for a COVID-19 vaccination staffing contract in 2021. Rather than return the funds, the Democratic lawmaker routed it through multiple accounts to disguise its source, according to the Justice Department's announcement. She conspired with multiple people, including her older brother, Edwin Cherfilus, to pull off the scam.

Lincoln submitted a complaint to the California Fair Political Practices Commission to investigate late filings of Lopez's 2020 campaign expenditures and missing documents, resulting in a $1,263 fine. The FPPC found many of Lopez's campaign statements were not filed on time, that expenditures totaling $14,104 were not recorded and that $4,500 was not processed through a bank account. Lopez told the Post he paid the $1,263 fine, resolving the case.

On Sunday, Massie posted a photo of Adelson and wrote, Israeli citizen Miriam Adelson bought the Dallas Mavericks for $3.5 billion; now she's buying politicians. She's spending millions in Kentucky to buy Ed Gallrein, my primary opponent, a Congressional seat in Kentucky. Why? Because I won't vote to send your tax dollars overseas. Miriam Adelson is a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen and the widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson.

Sliwa wanted to be the voice of the voiceless' The Masters of the Universe, the billionaires, decided that I should not have the right to represent all of you, to be the voice of the voiceless, the working class people who are the backbone of this city, Sliwa told his supporters Tuesday night. He alleged that he had been offered $10 million to drop out of the race and boost Cuomo's campaign but insisted that he did not have a price.