Tech billionaires are escalating their political spending in California, with new campaign finance disclosures revealing massive donations from current and former executives of Google, DoorDash, Reddit, LinkedIn and Facebook. The influx of cash is shaping both the race for governor and a proposed wealth tax.
Google’s former chief executive Eric Schmidt has donated $1.04m to an independent committee campaigning against the so-called Billionaire Tax Act. The union-backed proposal, opposed by most of the state’s wealthiest individuals, would fund education, food assistance and healthcare programmes.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin has adopted a bipartisan approach, contributing $39,200 to Republican candidate Steve Hilton, a former adviser to David Cameron, and donating the maximum $78,400 to Democrat Matt Mahan. Brin also gave $1m to an independent committee backing Mahan, Deliver for California.
Mahan, seen as the tech-friendly candidate, has attracted donations from DoorDash CEO Tony Xu, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, and other Silicon Valley figures. The battle over the billionaire tax has also drawn contributions from crypto billionaire Chris Larsen ($2m) and Stripe CEO Patrick Collison ($2m), among others.
Both Hilton and Mahan have publicly opposed the proposed tax, which is still gathering signatures to appear on the November ballot. Campaign organisers said they are ‘working around the clock’ to secure the required support.
