In California, it apparently pays to pay the governor.
After contributing to Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), wealthy donors secured multi-million dollar state contracts, massive tax credits, favorable executive actions, and appointments to prestigious university posts, a Washington Examiner review of public records has found. Since Newsom took office in 2019, state records show that the California state government has awarded over $53.2 million in contracts to firms owned or otherwise led by his major donors. These contracts included funding for state fire prevention, emergency response, and public health services, among other programs. One anecdote does well to illustrate the apparent association between donating to Newsom and succeeding in California.
Centene Corporation CEO Michael Neidorff and his wife donated $116,800 to Newsom’s debut 2018 gubernatorial bid. Shortly after Newsom won his election and took office in 2019, California began paying out massive sums of money to Health Net, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Centene Corporation, as part of the state’s health benefit exchange program. Between 2019 and 2020, the state paid roughly $24.6 million to Neidorff’s company.
Centene and the Neidorffs’ contributions didn’t stop in 2019, nor did their business relationship with the state of California. Neidorff and his wife donated an additional $124,000 to Newsom’s 2022 reelection campaign while Centene itself gave Newsom $32,400.
The data for the transactions is laid out on a Google Sheets document. You may review it here.
The report comes as it was revealed last month that Newsom’s wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, runs companies with shady dealings.
In one example, her Representation Project nonprofit, a Sacramento-based organization that calls itself “the leading gender watchdog,” has received donations from companies that lobbied her husband. That watchdog’s largest independent contractor is Girls Club Entertainment LLC, a for-profit film company controlled by Siebel Newsom.
She is paid $150,000 a year for a 40-hour work week at Representation Project, and another $150,000 for “writer/producer/director” services at Girls Club, according to tax filings.
Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of the non-partisan watchdog group Americans for Public Trust, said Gavin and Jennifer Newsom “have leveraged their business and non-profit endeavors for personal and political gain.”
She criticized the couple’s ventures, which she says have “raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars, pushing a politicized agenda into public schools, all while personally benefiting them.”
All of this comes to light as Newsom appears to be angling for a run at the highest office in the land. His team’s barbs at Trump on social media, imitating and mocking President Donald Trump in a bid to get attention and pose as an equal.
The information listed is from WashingtonExaminer.
