Gavin Newsom Diverts $4.5M in Taxpayer Money to Help Elect Democrats in Central Valley

Last week, California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) announced a controversial new initiative to fund several Left-wing groups in swing districts in the Central Valley — using state taxpayer funds!

Carl DeMaio, chairman of Reform California, blasted the effort as an under-the-table way to fund and elect Democrats.

“If you want evidence of election interference in the 2024 election, simply watch the flow of taxpayer money handed out by Democrat politicians to a variety of Left-wing groups that are engaging in political activity in these swing seats,” said DeMaio.

Newsom’s plan is to grant at least $4.5 million to Central Valley left-wing organizations. As a cover justification, Newsom says the funding will go to “facilitate anti-hate prevention measures.” 

To bolster his decision, Newsom pointed to a still-being-investigated August 18th shooting death of a San Bernardino County business owner whose death was allegedly linked to her having a Pride flag on her store. Interestingly, Newsom’s funds aren’t going to San Bernardino - but to the Central Valley where the target seats are located.

And while the governor claims the funding for these organizations is to help fight hate crimes, DeMaio explains that there are already resources to prevent hate crimes and that the money will really be used to promote liberal ideas and politicians.

“Existing law enforcement agencies are already equipped to combat legitimate hate crimes — but Gavin Newsom doesn’t want to waste a tragedy and lose his excuse to fund Left-leaning groups to turn out voters to win these target seats,” said DeMaio. 

Some of the organizations have been chosen to receive funding from the Newsom Administration so far are as follows:

• Radio Bilingüe efforts in the Central Coast: $205,000 
• The Dolores Huerta Foundation: $300,000 
• Fresno-based Education and Leadership Foundation: $575,000 
• The Equality California Institute (partners with the Fresno Unified School District): $630,000 
• Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries: $800,000 
• Jakara Movement: $700,000 
• Oasis Legal Services: $200,000 
• Stone Soup Fresno: $490,000 
• The Fresno Center: $800,000 
• Merced Lao Family Community, Inc.: $200,000

The Central Valley is home to 2 congressional seats that could be key to control of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2024: District 13 and District 22. Republican Representatives John Duarte and Davis Valadao won their respective seats by less than 4,000 votes each. Duarte only won his seat by 564 votes.

“The Central Valley is a swing area when it comes to elections — this is a calculated move by Newsom to fund liberal groups, who will fund voter turnout efforts in liberal areas, to help sway the election outcome in this crucial area toward Democrats,” said DeMaio.

DeMaio says California Democrats have a pattern of using taxpayer resources to fund their political campaigns - and the abuse of taxpayer funds for political purposes has gotten completely out-of-hand in recent years.  

One report by the nonpartisan nonprofit Transparency Foundation found that at least $6.6 million in inappropriate taxpayer funding was diverted to Left-wing groups in San Diego county in 2020-2021 – all while those same groups engaged in significant lobbying, issue advocacy, and political activities. 

The investigation found that several taxpayer-funded contracts and grants directed to the Left-wing groups by politicians directly subsidized political activities. The investigation even uncovered coordination between government staff and a Left-wing group in advancing proposed redistricting maps that would benefit these same politicians.

And it’s not just San Diego County. The House Ways and Means Committee in Congress announced this month that it was opening an investigation into Democrat politicians improperly funding nonprofits to boost voter turnout in exclusively Left-leaning areas.

The IRS says that 501(c)3 tax-exempt organizations can conduct voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts — but only "if they are conducted in a neutral, non-partisan manner, for example, without reference to any candidate or political party."

“Every person that cares about the integrity of our elections should be concerned about the patterns of abuse of taxpayer funds by these liberal politicians to benefit their own elections,” says DeMaio. 

“And this funding by Governor Gavin Newsom for these Left-wing groups in the Central Valley is just the latest example of improper use of taxpayer funds,” he continued.

Carl DeMaio and Reform California are leading a campaign to level the playing field by supporting common-sense candidates against the far-Left politicians that would benefit from this abuse of taxpayer funds.

“While Newsom and the Democrats raid taxpayer funds to get an unfair advantage, we must try to win these seats the legal way by raising funds from grassroots supporters and helping our candidates win,” DeMaio explained.

“We need all the help we can get to stop the diversion of taxpayer funds by Democrats into their far-Left political groups, so please contribute to our campaign today,” DeMaio implores.