{"id":10455,"date":"2018-11-30T11:31:33","date_gmt":"2018-11-30T19:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=10455"},"modified":"2018-11-30T11:31:33","modified_gmt":"2018-11-30T19:31:33","slug":"sf-giants-principal-owner-charles-b-johnson-explains-political-donations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2018\/11\/30\/sf-giants-principal-owner-charles-b-johnson-explains-political-donations\/","title":{"rendered":"SF Giants principal owner Charles B. Johnson explains political donations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Henry Schulman<\/span>\u00a0<\/a><\/span>
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Charles Johnson, Chairman of the Board, Franklin Resources, San Mateo, CA<\/span>Photo: Franklin Templeton Investments<\/span><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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FILE – In this Nov. 5, 2018, file photo, U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., addresses a gathering of supporters in Jackson, Miss. The last U.S. Senate race of the midterms was coming to a close Tuesday as Mississippi residents chose between Hyde-Smith, a white Republican Senate appointee whose “public hanging” comments angered many people,\u00a0<\/span>Photo: Rogelio V. Solis, AP<\/span><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Giants fans react to calls for a boycott of their team after it was revealed that billionaire team co-owner Charles Johnson donated to the campaign of Republican Senate candidate\u00a0Cindy Hyde-Smith. Hyde-Smith has been deemed a racist or racially insensitive.<\/span>Photo: Twitter screen shot<\/span><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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Charles B. Johnson, the billionaire Giants principal owner embroiled in a controversy over two political donations, defended himself Wednesday against charges that he is racist and criticized U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi for her \u201cpublic hanging\u201d comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think she was stupid,\u201d Johnson told The Chronicle by phone from Palm Beach, Fla., in an extraordinarily rare interview. \u201cShe said stupid things, particularly in Mississippi. I think the comments she made about the hanging was offensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson, 85, also said the racist radio ad in Arkansas created by an organization to which he donated $1,000 was \u201cunacceptable,\u201d that he has made contributions to many African American office-seekers, most recently Utah congresswoman Mia Love, who lost her re-election bid, and that he is \u201ca believer in racial harmony.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also, while Johnson understands why Giants fans were upset with his two oft-criticized donations, he defended his role as\u00a0one of the nation\u2019s most prolific Republican donors<\/a>\u00a0and said his spending has nothing to do with the team, from which he has no plans to divest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry that they feel that way,\u201d Johnson said in a relaxed tone. \u201cI try to do the best thing that I can. Some things are good and some things are mistakes and you live the best way you can with your own philosophy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pointing toward the falling African American unemployment rate, which President Trump often touts, Johnson said, \u201cI do believe the Republican party has been better for blacks than the Democratic party has. You\u2019ll get a lot of argument about that, particularly from the NAACP, but if you look at the results, the opportunity to rise in life is much better under Republicans than under radical Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n

He emphasized that he said \u201cradical\u201d to differentiate them from moderate Democrats, some of whom he supports.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the whole,\u201d he said, \u201cI don\u2019t like the idea of politics affecting anything that I do with the Giants.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Johnson was speaking to The Chronicle, Oakland civil-rights attorney John Burris\u00a0issued a statement<\/a>\u00a0calling off a boycott of the Giants that he had advocated, alongside NAACP San Francisco chapter president the Rev. Amos Brown and sociologist Harry Edwards.<\/p>\n

That decision followed\u00a0news Tuesday<\/a>\u00a0that Johnson, whose 26 percent stake makes him the largest Giants shareholder, had written to the Hyde-Smith campaign seeking a refund of the $5,400 that he and his wife, Ann, had donated to her campaign. Hyde-Smith won her election Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Johnson already had sought and received a refund of the $1,000 he donated to the Black Americans for the President\u2019s Agenda, which produced the racist radio ad in Arkansas supporting Republican Rep. French Hill in his successful re-election bid.<\/p>\n

Burris said in his statement that after speaking with Edwards and Brown, \u201cI have decided that Mr. Johnson\u2019s statements condemning racism and requesting the returns of his contributions to Senator-elect Hyde-Smith are sufficient, positive steps and that the boycott is not further warranted at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burris was cautious, however, saying, \u201cMr. Johnson is free to make any and all contributions that he wants, but as a principal owner of the Giants, those contributions should not go to organizations or politicians perpetuating racist views or condoning systems that further the legacies of discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a longtime Giants supporter and civil-rights lawyer, I want the best for the team,\u201d Burris said. \u201cBut I will be watching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson explained both donations.<\/p>\n

He said he received a \u201cflier\u201d from the Black Americans PAC seeking his support for African American candidates.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get things in the mail, and that was an interesting flier,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIt said nothing about advertising.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson also said he initiated his contribution to Hyde-Smith on Nov. 10, one day before a video surfaced in which she expressed her regard for a campaign supporter by saying she would be in the \u201cfront row\u201d of a public hanging if he invited her.<\/p>\n

The campaign did not report the donation until Nov. 20, nine days after the video emerged.<\/p>\n

The comment drew widespread criticism for its allusion to lynchings; more such killings happened in Mississippi than in any other state, according to the NAACP.<\/p>\n

Johnson said he made that contribution\u00a0<\/a>after receiving an email from a group \u201cthat vets all kinds of things\u201d seeking money. He called it a \u201cvery responsible group.\u201d<\/p>\n

While agreeing that the hanging comment was offensive, Johnson said he had no issue with Hyde-Smith being photographed in a Confederate hat, which he said was common in the South.<\/p>\n

That could be a topic for Thursday, when Johnson speaks by phone with Brown and Giants President and CEO Larry Baer, who organized the call.<\/p>\n

Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email:\u00a0hschulman@sfchronicle.com<\/a>\u00a0Twitter:\u00a0@hankschulman<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Henry Schulman\u00a0Nov. 28, 2018 (SFChronicle.com) Charles Johnson, Chairman of the Board, Franklin Resources, San Mateo, CAPhoto: Franklin Templeton Investments FILE – In this Nov. 5, 2018, file photo, U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., addresses a gathering of supporters in Jackson, Miss. The last U.S. Senate race of the midterms was… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10455"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10456,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10455\/revisions\/10456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}