California Gov. Gavin Newsom has used his political power to direct corporate “donations” to organizations and government programs of his choice. Newsom has used these behestments, as they’re called, in increasing numbers since he won office in 2018. The behestments are demanded of corporate donors who no doubt hope to curry favor with the governor and are often politically motivated.
We saw an example of this demand for corporate donations at Newsom’s behest in the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) failure. At Gavin Newsom’s behest, the “first partner” Jennifer Seibel Newsom’s charity called the “California Partners Project” got $100,000 from SVB. Newsom has proven himself to be quite the fundraiser for his wife’s charity, shaking down $1,671,680 for her project over the past three years.
Newsom also had a role in “changing the law in 2020 to “modernize” the regulation of state-chartered banks. Two laws passed during the pandemic increased political control of financial institutions.”
One unnoticed aspect of the Silicon Valley Bank failure is Gov. Gavin Newsom's role in changing the law in 2020 to "modernize" regulation of state-chartered banks. Two laws passed during the pandemic increased political control of financial institutions.https://t.co/scVVhAWaph
— Susan Shelley (@Susan_Shelley) March 15, 2023
To their credit, the Leftist L.A. Times and L.A. Daily News have been ringing alarm bells about Newsom’s behestment “corruption” since at least 2020.
The Daily News noted:
Some of the reports describe payments to the California Partners Project as “a donation to a 501c4 organization focused on women’s leadership and the effects of media and technology on youth,” but it does not appear that this is fully accurate. The California Partners Project doesn’t show up in Guidestar or Charity Navigator, two databases that list nonprofit organizations, and the latest “behested payments” reports do not refer to a 501c4. They describe the payments as “To support the work of the California Partners Project.”
But that’s not the only “charity” Newsom’s wife runs. The Daily News opinion piece that the first partner has been paid more than a million dollars for her work with another charity getting behestments.
[In 2021], the Sacramento Bee reported that The Representation Project paid Mrs. Newsom $2.3 million in salary between 2011 and 2018. Much of that money came from entities with a keen interest in maintaining good relationships with elected officials. For example, Pacific Gas & Electric gave $358,000 to The Representation Project between 2011 and 2019. AT&T gave more than $185,000 between 2017 and 2020. Comcast wrote a check for $15,000. Kaiser Permanente chipped in $20,000.
The Bee’s reporting uncovered that donations to Mrs. Newsom’s nonprofit jumped 30% to nearly $16 million after her husband announced in 2015 that he would be a candidate for governor. Suddenly, huge companies that lobby the state government all decided at the same time to support “the transformative power of storytelling to awaken consciousness around harmful gender stereotypes and norms, shift attitudes and behavior, and transform culture.”
Newsom has become a pro at demanding that corporations in his state support the governor’s favorite programs. He sits in his Sacramento office and points his manicured forefinger at corporations and suggests where he wants their money to go at his behest. It’s hard to conceive that such a scheme is anything less than a pay-for-play operation to further his and his party’s political ends.
Newsom’s behestments scheme — which is legal and reportable — began the second he took office when he shook down corporations for $8 million and gave them inside access to his oath of office ceremony. He made sure he tagged a worthy cause to the “donations,” in this case wildfire victims. Of course, the American people are used to corporations paying for inaugurations and balls, but Newsom has elevated his behestment shake down to artful, indeed Clinton Foundation-like, levels.
Silicon Valley’s Salesforce was first in line with a $1 million donation. Today, Salesforce is in financial trouble. The California Teachers Association and prison guards union ponied up $200,000 each. Those are public sector unions that turned their member’s dues into a political statement.
In 2018 he arranged for $8 million in behestments, in 2019 these were up to $12.1 million, and in 2020, while the governor was ordering shutdowns, mandates, and for church choirs to stop singing, he directed corporations to “donate” a staggering $226.5 million mostly to his COVID-19 causes. As a Daily News guest opinion writer says, “Having emergency powers over everybody’s business means never having to take ‘no’ for an answer.”
Related: Gavin Newsom Has Some Explaining to Do About Personal Ties to Failed Silicon Valley Bank
In the year 2020, Newsom’s take in the behestment scheme equaled more than Jerry Brown accumulated during eight years in office. Most of that money was directed to his own office and his own emergency services department and to an outfit called Enterprise Community Partners, Inc. which is funded by the usual tech billionaire foundations to “provide homes” for the impoverished, or something like that.
In 2021, Newsom directed corporations to spend $14.9 million. In 2022, Newsom’s behestments were back up to $100 million.
Before online dictionaries began changing their definitions to oppose whatever Donald Trump or Republicans were doing on any given day, governments directing corporations was a key aspect of fascism. Ask Benito Mussolini. My husband’s old Webster’s College Dictionary, Second Edition that his mom and dad gave him a million years ago defines it in part as “characterized by rigid one-party dictatorship, forcible suppression of opposition, private economic enterprise under centralized government control.”
I don’t know if Godwin’s law applies to fascism, but it’s good to know what it looks like.
It’s good to be king, isn’t it?
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