The financial drive behind California Gov. Gavin Newsom‘s recall campaign is largely being fueled by his hometown of San Francisco, where many large donors reside.
Finance reports cited by the San Francisco Chronicle show that San Francisco, where Newsom previously served as mayor, was the the city where the second largest amount of funds originated.
Fifty-four donations, which amounted to $228,525, were traced back to San Francisco, behind Irvine, where 34 donations were given, totaling $613,550. Los Angeles followed the two cities with 80 donations coming in at $215,307.
Though tech venture capitalists have contributed largely to the campaign, Silicon Valley as a whole accounted for few of the several large donations. Roughly 92% of the funds for the recall effort against the governor came from within California.
‘HE THINKS HE’S KING, NOT GOVERNOR’: SUPPORT FOR GAVIN NEWSOM RECALL HIGH IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
The recall effort against Newsom, largely driven by his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, surpassed 1.8 million signatures, though most still need to be verified by the secretary of state’s office before an October recall election can be triggered.
A recent report released earlier this month by the California secretary of state’s office said it verified about 800,000 signatures so far, among which about 84% were valid. The deadline to submit the petition to recall Newsom is March 17.
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In recent days, Newsom sped up his response to reopen schools, introducing a proposal a day after news broke that a GOP-led campaign donated $500,000 to the recall effort.
Newsom, a Democrat, took office in 2019, after comfortably defeating his GOP challenger John Cox in the 2018 gubernatorial race. Before that, he was lieutenant governor and mayor of San Francisco.
