Just 10 days into his 2018 run for governor, Lt. Gov.Gavin Newsom has collected over $700,000 in contributions, including donations from some of the Bay Area’s top tech luminaries, according to the campaign finance reports on file with the California secretary of state’s office.
Newsom’s exploratory committee reported maximum contributions — $28,200 each for the primary and the general election — from Salesforce.com founder and philanthropist Marc Benioff; Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer; her husband, investor Zachary Bogue; former Apple CEO John Scully; and his wife, Regina. Also giving the maximum were Westfield CEO Peter Lowy; Rakshpaal Dogra, co-CEO of the football division of Relativity Sports; Tao Capital Partners Managing Director Joseph Pritzke; Nicholas Pritzker, the firm’s director of strategic planning; and Aileen Getty of Los Angeles.
The documents on file with the California secretary of state, which include all contributions of $5,000 or more until Feb. 26, also reported a $5,000 contribution from both Susie Tompkins Buell — the co-founder of the Esprit de Corps clothing company and one of the nation’s most generous Democratic donors — and her husband, Mark Buell.
“It’s a necessarily great start on a long journey,” said Dan Newman, a partner of SCN Strategies of San Francisco, Newsom’s political advisers. “The reality of running in a state this size, for better or worse, is that you need a tremendous amount of resources to talk to voters — especially with the history of self-funders who’ve popped up in every single California gubernatorial race for the past 20 years,” he said.
Possible Newsom rivals in the Democratic race to succeed Gov. Jerry Brown are billionaire activist Tom Steyer, former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, venture capitalist and former Democratic state Controller Steve Westly, and state Controller John Chiang.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Newsom-already-has-700k-on-hand-to-run-for-6105799.php