{"id":828,"date":"2026-05-26T10:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T10:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=828"},"modified":"2026-05-26T10:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T10:30:08","slug":"record-setting-outside-money-pouring-into-california-governors-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=828","title":{"rendered":"Record-setting outside money pouring into California governor\u2019s race"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Corporations, labor unions, tech titans, Native American tribes and other special interests have donated a record-shattering $79.6 million to independent committees focused on swaying the volatile California governor\u2019s race ahead of the June 2 primary.<\/p>\n

Read more My pick for California governor is \u2026 I\u2019m still working on it<\/a><\/p>\n

Many of the largest backers to these committees will have significant business interests in front of the state\u2019s next governor and state agencies, with hopes of either strengthening a candidate aligned with their political priorities or undercutting those who oppose them. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first time I\u2019ve ever seen IEs [or independent expenditures] have this kind of an impact on a governor\u2019s race,\u201d said veteran GOP strategist Martin Wilson, who has worked on every California gubernatorial contest since 1978 and worked on an outside effort backing San Jos\u00e9 Mayor Matt Mahan\u2019s 2026 bid for governor. \u201cIt\u2019s totally unprecedented.\u201d<\/p>\n

Election laws bar independent expenditure committees from communicating or coordinating with campaigns, allowing candidates to emphasize that they have no control over the money that pours into these outside groups. The wall between the two has long been viewed as performative and penetrable.<\/p>\n

The greatest amount of outside spending has been directed at attacking billionaire hedge fund founder turned environmental warrior Tom Steyer, a leading Democrat in the race. <\/p>\n

Nearly $32.3 million had been donated to opposing his candidacy as of Monday, according to the California Target Book, a nonpartisan political almanac, which tracks independent expenditure committees. Among the major donors are utility giant PG&E, a political action committee sponsored by the California Chamber of Commerce and the California Assn. of Realtors\u2019 independent expenditure committee, which combined have utility, business, property tax and building issues affected by lawmakers and regulators in the state capital. <\/p>\n

Independent expenditures supporting Steyer\u2019s bid for governor have been minimal compared with the record-breaking $212 million Steyer has donated to his own campaign as of Monday, according to the California secretary of state\u2019s office. Still, more than $1.4 million of outside money has been spent supporting his bid, largely by the California Nurses Assn., which shares his goal of creating single-payer healthcare.<\/p>\n

Expenditure committees linked to Uber, the California Medical Assn., the kidney dialysis company DaVita and the California Dental Assn. contributed nearly $7.3 million to independent efforts backing former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin) before he dropped out of the gubernatorial race in April because of sexual assault and misconduct allegations.<\/p>\n

Several of those donors then coalesced behind former Biden Cabinet member Xavier Becerra, who was struggling to connect with California voters before he surged to become a front-runner, recent opininon polls show. More than $13 million has been contributed to outside groups backing the former U.S. Health and Human Services secretary.<\/p>\n

The outside money has led to flashpoints in the race. Steyer points to corporations backing Becerra, such as a $500,000 Chevron donation to a group supporting him that was reported to state election officials on Thursday. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Becerra campaign was running out of gas until the latest half-million dollar influx from Chevron,\u201d said Steyer spokesman Anthony York.<\/p>\n

The message echoes a Steyer theme on the campaign trail \u2014 that candidates ought to be judged by who is supporting them and who is opposing them.<\/p>\n

Becerra accused Steyer of misleading voters because the $500,000 from Chevron went to an independent expenditure committee supporting him that he has no control over. However, Becerra did receive a direct $39,200 contribution from the oil company to his campaign committee in June 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor him to say that I took the [$500,000] \u2026 that\u2019s just an outright lie,\u201d he said in a television interview this weekend. \u201cIt pains me to see that candidates for office believe that they have to descend to telling lies in order to gain favor with voters. If that\u2019s what you do as a candidate, what will you do when you\u2019re in the office?\u201d <\/p>\n

Steyer\u2019s campaign, which used the Memorial Day weekend to attack Becerra with billboards highlighting high gas prices in Los Angeles and Fresno, said it was disingenuous for Becerra to feign ignorance of how the political system works.<\/p>\n

\u201cChevron is charging Californians record gas prices on one hand and turning right around to spend $500,000 to elect Xavier Becerra with the other,\u201d said Steyer spokesperson Danni Wang. \u201cNow Becerra is playing semantic gymnastics trying to pretend voters are too stupid to understand how dark money in politics works. Californians aren\u2019t buying it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Becerra\u2019s campaign argued that such comments are the height of hypocrisy coming from a billionaire whose campaign is funded by his profits from a hedge fund that made investments that are opposed by many voters. Becerra said he continually took on oil companies when he served as California\u2019s attorney general.<\/p>\n

\u201cTom Steyer made his billions off fossil fuels and private prisons, then decided that qualified him to run California,\u201d said Becerra spokesman Jonathan Underland. \u201cHe\u2019s now attacking the only candidate in this race who actually held Big Oil\u2019s feet to the fire and beat [President] Trump 100 times as [state attorney general]. The irony would be funny if Tom\u2019s checkbook weren\u2019t so thick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mahan, a moderate Democrat, has benefited from $21.7 million in spending by outside groups backing him, while $570,000 has been spent by independent committees opposing him, according to the Target Book. The donors who supported his bid are a who\u2019s who of Silicon Valley, including venture capitalists Michael Moritz and L. John Doerr, Stripe Chief Executive Patrick Collinson and Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla. Other notable donors include billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso, who unsuccessfully ran for Los Angeles mayor in 2022, as well as Griff Harsh V, the son of billionaire Meg Whitman, the unsuccessful 2010 GOP gubernatorial nominee turned Democrat who once led EBay.<\/p>\n

Despite that generous support, Mahan remains mired in the single digits in the polls. On Wednesday, billionaire Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings received a refund of $1 million he had donated to one of the independent expenditure committees supporting Mahan\u2019s bid. <\/p>\n

Hastings said he had not requested the money to be returned to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m voting for Matt Mahan. I didn\u2019t ask for any refund and they shouldn\u2019t have done it,\u201d he posted on X on Saturday. \u201cGo Matt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt Rodriguez, a spokesman for the Back to Basics committee backing Mahan, said that he believes Mahan\u2019s standing in the race is a reflection of a number of factors \u2014 an underwhelming contest as well as Mahan\u2019s January entry into it and the fact that he was not well known statewide. <\/p>\n

Read more Southern California could get 85% of its water locally and avoid Delta tunnel, groups say<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe got in a little bit late and it was a big climb … with an apathetic electorate,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cPolitics is all about money and timing \u2014 both the amount of time and being there at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mahan\u2019s priorities, such as housing and homelessness improvements he oversaw in San Jos\u00e9, had an impact on the campaign, the Democratic strategist said. <\/p>\n

\u201cDemocrats have to perform, and if we are going to perform, we have to have results,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The only other candidate who saw seven figures in independent expenditure spending was Republican Steve Hilton, a former Fox News commentator who has been endorsed by Trump and is the leading GOP candidate in the race. More than $1.8 million has been spent opposing Hilton and $13,750 was spent supporting him.<\/p>\n

SEIU California donated $250,000 to opposing gubernatorial candidates. Oscar Lopez, the union\u2019s political director, said it has opposed Hilton, Mahan and Republican Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach of these candidates represents a serious threat to the wages, rights and dignity of California\u2019s working people,\u201d Lopez said.<\/p>\n

Hilton said the spending against him represents Democratic recognition of him as a threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey know that they\u2019re vulnerable. The Democratic machine understands they\u2019ve got weak candidates and a terrible record,\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cThey see me as outsider and change agent. The only argument they have \u2014 if you can call it an argument \u2014 is to endlessly repeat the words Trump and MAGA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside spending has grown exponentially after a voter-approved 2000 California ballot measure limited how much donors can contribute directly to candidates. For the current election, it\u2019s $78,400 for the primary and the general election in the governor\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

But donors can contribute unlimited amounts to outside groups, which are formally called independent expenditure committees. Though such donations were already legal in California, they greatly increased in the state and across the nation after the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s 2010 Citizens United decision that said limits on independent political spending by corporations, unions and other entities violated 1st Amendment free speech protections.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a steady increase in the amount of money going to outside groups,\u201d said Rick Hasen, a professor of law and political science at UCLA.<\/p>\n

In California, independent expenditure groups set a record in 2010 when they spent about $25 million supporting then-gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown. Largely union money, it was spent in the summer after the primary and was viewed as critical to stalling self-funding Republican billionaire Meg Whitman\u2019s campaign. Brown ultimately won the race by 13 percentage points.<\/p>\n

In the 2018 gubernatorial primary, records were once again broken by more than $26 million of outside spending, with former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa being the biggest beneficiary. Charter school backers spent nearly $16 million on unsuccessful efforts to boost his campaign. <\/p>\n

In addition to an enormous financial advantage over campaign committees, outside groups have the ability to trumpet highly provocative adversarial attacks without the candidate they support being blamed for the often controversial messaging.<\/p>\n

\u201cIEs are as free to go as negative as they want without that negativity boomeranging back to hurt the candidate,\u201d said Thad Kousser, a political science professor at UC San Diego.<\/p>\n

While communication between candidate campaigns and independent committees is forbidden, these rules are commonly circumvented using legal but obvious methods. One called \u201cred boxing,\u201d which Becerra employed earlier this year, literally puts messages inside red-lined boxes on candidate websites that their campaign strategists would like to see outside groups highlight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are technical rules that prevent certain types of communication, but it\u2019s easy enough to communicate in public and be on the same page on messaging,\u201d Hasen said.<\/p>\n

Among the major donors in the 2026 campaign are the California Chamber of Commerce, PG&E, the California Assn. of Realtors, the Laborers Pacific Southwest Regional Organizing Coalition PAC, the Pechanga Band of Indians, the California Nurses Assn., and corporations and leaders or founders of companies such as Meta, Google and Uber.<\/p>\n

Californians for the People, an outside committee that has spent nearly $32.3 million opposing Steyer, is the most well-funded independent expenditure committee this year. Among it\u2019s largest donors is JOBSPAC, a group sponsored by the California Chamber of Commerce, that has donated nearly $11.8 million to the effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalChamber is participating in an independent expenditure campaign because voters deserve to know more about Mr. Steyer,\u201d said John Myers, a spokesman for the chamber. \u201cHis policy promises will cost billions, driving investment out of California and worsening the state\u2019s affordability crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pechanga Band of Indians has spent $1.5 million on pro-Becerra efforts. <\/p>\n

\u201cSecretary Becerra has stood with Indian Country for decades and understands Tribal sovereignty,\u201d said Pechanga Chairman Mark Macarro. \u201cWhen tribal healthcare was on the line, he was there. This experience comes from a lifetime of public service, not a checkbook.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Defying Trump, California continues to bet big on offshore wind<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Corporations, labor unions, tech titans, tribes and other special interests have donated $79.6 million to independent committees focused on swaying the volatile California governor\u2019s race ahead of the June 2 primary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nRecord-setting outside money pouring into California governor\u2019s race - California Relocation Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=828\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Record-setting outside money pouring into California governor\u2019s race - 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