The Legislature Must Investigate Newsom’s Corruption
Today, I called for a formal investigation into Gavin Newsom’s use of “emergency powers” to award massive no-bid contracts to his top campaign donors. You can read my full release here.
Government ethics experts have raised concerns that “a handful of companies dumped money into Newsom’s campaign coffers and then received no-bid contracts.” This followed a Capitol Public Radio report finding that “an overlap of at least a half-dozen companies that made substantial contributions to Newsom and received no-bid contracts from the state, influential appointments, or other opportunities related to the state’s pandemic response.”
Among the examples from the CapRadio report:
• Blue Shield: gave $342,000 to Newsom campaign accounts before, during, and after receiving most of the spots on Newsom’s testing “task force” and getting a $15 million no-bid contract for vaccine distribution.
• UnitedHealth: Gave $210,400 to Newsom campaign accounts before, during, and after one subsidiary got a $177 million no-bid contract and other subsidiaries received at least $315 million in contracts through expedited bidding.
• Bloom Energy: Received $2 million no bid ventilator contract before and after giving $85,000 to Newsom campaign accounts
• BYD China: President of manufacturer gave $40,000 to Newsom before receiving a $1.3 billion no-bid mask deal.
• FivePoint: CEO gave $56,000 to Newsom before and after landing a spot on his Business and Jobs Recovery task force.
Bob Stern, a registered Democrat and former general counsel to the California Fair Political Practices Commission said: “I really think that the governor has a tin ear in terms of receiving huge campaign contributions and providing sole-source contracts for corporations that were giving him these contributions,”
Dan Schnur, a professor of political communications at University of California, Berkeley said “the governor and his team needed to make more of an effort to explain to the people of California why these decisions didn’t violate the public trust, and why his donors were given these opportunities.”
This is all of course on top of Newsom keeping schools closed for no reason because he’s largest campaign benefactor instructed him to. That’s why I call him America’s most corrupt Governor. It’s also why I’m the only 100-percent citizen backed legislator and have already declined tens of thousands of dollars this year from Special Interests.
Help me fight corruption at our Capitol
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