The cash is streaming in for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recall fight.
Netflix founder and co-CEO Reed Hastings is Newsom’s largest donor as the governor fights off an impending recall challenge, with the businessman donating $3 million to the Democrat’s campaign, according to Politico.
Donations to a candidate for office would normally be subject to campaign finance laws, but Newsom’s effort to prevail in a recall is considered a ballot initiative rather than a candidacy, thus lifting the cap. Other high-profile donors who have cut six-figure checks to Newsom’s cause include billionaires Stewart and Lynda Resnick, 49ers CEO Jed York, law firms, and labor unions.
Hastings has contributed to Newsom in the past, giving the California Democrat $58,016 for his initial gubernatorial run in 2018, according to records from campaign finance database Follow the Money.
NEWSOM TRIES TO BRIBE RECALL VOTERS WITH BIDEN’S HELP
California is one of 19 states to allow voters to recall its governor. After initially enjoying high approval ratings, Newsom gradually attracted criticism for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, with many polls showing high disapproval of his state’s economic recovery and vaccine rollout.
On April 26, state officials announced recall organizers had succeeded in gaining the necessary number of signatures to force a recall, with more than 1,626,000 verified signatures collected, eclipsing the 1,495,709 signatures required.
Newsom blasted the effort as a “Republican recall” driven by “a partisan, Republican coalition of national Republicans, anti-vaxxers, Q-Anon conspiracy theorists and anti-immigrant Trump supporters,” but former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the only candidate to win the governorship in California via a recall election, said Newsom should treat the recall as “a valve” for constituents’ frustrations.
“People have to have a way to let out their anger, and this recall is a way to let out their anger. So, now, it’s up to him to say, ‘Now, wait a minute. OK, maybe I was slow at the wheel in the beginning, but I promise you, this is the kind of governor I will be,’ and then he is going to go and now jump into more action,” he said, adding that the governor has done a “good job” in “improv[ing] his connection with the people” since the recall effort began.
Several Republican hopefuls are in contention for the governorship, with former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer announcing his candidacy in February and reality television star and former Olympic athlete Caitlyn Jenner filing paperwork in April.
Richard Grenell, U.S. ambassador to Germany and acting director of National Intelligence under former President Donald Trump, is reportedly mulling a run as well.
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The state’s second gubernatorial recall effort is scheduled to take place in the fall, likely in November.
Representatives for Netflix did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
