The ‘Recall Gavin Newsom’ Effort Is Basically Just 5 Guys

Image: @GavinNewsom via Twitter

The media is being largely hoodwinked about the “Recall Gavin Newsom” movement, which is currently operating under the name Rescue California. The New York Post calls it “a grassroots recall effort.” Fox News claims the movement is “picking up steam.” Newsweek insists that the effort has “gained traction,” and reprints the absurd quote from a Recall Gavin senior adviser that Newsom is “fighting for his political life right now.”

This is all horseshit. Gavin Newsom has about a 60% approval rating at the moment, which is pretty much the margin he was elected with, so he is not exactly “fighting for his political life.” And the Recall Gavin Newsom movement is no grassroots movement whatsoever, as 80% of the money behind it is all from the same five dark money donors affiliated with the tech and real estate industries.

People, the Recall Gavin Newsom effort is basically 5 guys with too much money on their hands. 

Screnshot: RecallGavin2020.com

THE FIVE DONORS FUNDING THE RECALL EFFORT

The Broke-Ass Campaign Finance I-Team sifted through the Recall Gavin contribution records with the California Secretary of State. The money is coming from two organizations, California Patriot Organization and Rescue California. 

But both groups are bankrolled primarily through the same people. The two groups have raised a combined $1.7 million to recall Newsom, but $1.4 million comes from the same five donors.

• Proverbs 3:9, LLC ($713,600) – Campaign watchdogs got suspicious when a mysterious $500,000 showed up in the Recall account in late December, attributed to a biblically named organization called Proverbs 3:9, LLC that has very little track record of actually existing. The Chronicle dug in and found that Proverbs 3:9, LLC has one “single member John Kruger,” an Orange County charter school advocate. The one-man “organization” made another $213,000 donation in early January.
• SF Venture Capitalist Dixon Doll ($191,000) –  This nearly $200,000 is spread out over four payments, some from Dixon Doll of SF VC firm Doll Capital Management and other attributed to his wife Carol, who is listed as president of that firm.

• Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Doug Leone ($150,000) – This managing partner at Menlo Park-based Sequoia Capital was also a significant Trump donor, though one of his two donations to Recall Gavin is attributed to his wife Patricia Perkins-Leone, whose profession is listed as “Homemaker.”

• Trump Mega-Donor Geoff Palmer ($150,000) – The American Prospect describes Geoff Palmer as “LA’s Most Controversial Developer” with a “record of lawsuits and real estate dealings that invariably put the wealthy first.” 

• Something called ‘DGB Ranch’ ($150,000) – Here’s another one with very little record of actually existing; something called DGB Ranch that claims to be based on Los Angeles gave $150,000 last week. This is how dark money donations work, there is no record of who is affiliated with this entity.

Screenshot: Ballotpedia

THEY ARE *ALWAYS* TRYING TO RECALL GAVIN NEWSOM

Another thing the press often misses is that these same people try to recall Gavin Newsom a lot. This is actually the sixth time they’ve tried to recall Gavin, and he has only been in office for two years. 

Of course, this time they claim to have 1.2 million signatures out of the necessary 1.5 million. But if those 1.2 million signatures are anything like the $1.7 million they’ve raised, it’s just the same five dudes over and over again.