Gavin Newsom is essentially running against Donald Trump<\/a> in the recall. His ads, which are running on TV and are filling my Facebook feed, call the recall an effort by \u201cthe same Republicans who refused to accept the election results\u201d and \u201care passing voter suppression laws across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, the ads say, these Trumpers \u201chave set their sights on California.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Newsom is not wrong: The recall is, indeed, an effort driven by the GOP, which is way out of power in this state and has elected only one governor in the past 26 years<\/a> \u2013 through a recall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But while the news is focused on his campaign and his ads, there\u2019s been less attention to another recall effort that is, to at least some extent, funded by people connected to Trump allies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The campaign to recall San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, records show, has raised much of its money from groups funded by some of the national GOP\u2019s most reliable donors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The way these folks move money around, it can be hard to track the actual people who are putting up the cash. What they typically do is set up state-registered committees, which have different disclosure deadlines from San Francisco committees, then run the money from one to another so the average voter doesn\u2019t always know who is paying for which ads.Help us save local journalism!Every tax-deductible donation helps us grow to cover the issues that mean the most to our community. Become a 48 Hills Hero and support the only daily progressive news source in the Bay Area.<\/a>Learn more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n But with a little research, it\u2019s easy to show that the big money behind the recall comes from a couple of groups that have been pushing against progressive candidates and causes in the city for the past several years \u2013 with the help of at least one rich loyal Republican donor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s start with a group called Neighbors for a Better San Francisco<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is an organization that raised $3 million in the fall of 2020 to try to block progressive taxes and support Mayor London Breed\u2019s candidates for the Board of Supes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of its major funders: William Obendorf. As we pointed out, he<\/p>\n\n\n\n has donated more than $1 million to the Republican Party to keep Mitch McConnell in control of the US Senate. He is a strong supporter of charter schools, an ally of Betsy DeVos, and put almost $50,000 into the anti-homeless measure Prop. Q in 2016.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n It appears from public filings that this organization ended its unsuccessful efforts in 2020 with $300,000 in the bank. And now some of that money (at least $100,000) is going to try to recall Boudin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another big donor to the recall: The San Francisco Common Sense Voter Guide, which has put $50,000 into the effort. That\u2019s a committee created by the main lobbyists for the San Francisco Board of Realtors, Mary Jung and Jay Cheng.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Common Sense Voter Guide got $73,000 from a state-registered PAC called Fed Up San Francisco. Fed Up\u2019s main money comes from (imagine!) Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, along with the Chamber of Commerce ($100,000) and the downtown-backed Committee on Jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh, there\u2019s more: Daniel O\u2019Keefe, a Chicago-based investor, put up $50,000 for a different recall committee (there are two). (Why does a rich guy in Chicago want to get rid of the San Francisco district attorney? Don\u2019t know. But I know that he also donated, according to FEC filings, to both Biden for president and to Republican David Perdue\u2019s US Senate campaign in Georgia last year.) William Fisher, an heir to the GAP fortune created by his GOP-allied father, gave $50,000. Real-estate investor David DeWilde put up $100,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So here\u2019s what\u2019s going on:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whatever you hear or see about the Boudin recall signature effort, and if it does qualify, the ads that you are going to see, are part of a national right-wing effort to undermine progressive criminal justice reform. Boudin won the election on a platform of doing exactly what he has done; there\u2019s no scandal here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The backers are also part of a local movement backed by Big Tech and real estate that is trying to control the direction of local politics \u2013 these days, with little success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many of the people involved were strong supporters of Boudin\u2019s opponents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like Trump supporters, they don\u2019t seem to want to accept the outcome of an election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tim Redmond<\/em><\/a> has been a political and investigative reporter in San Francisco for more than 30 years. He spent much of that time as executive editor of the Bay Guardian. He is the founder of 48hills.<\/em> Many of the same individuals and corporations who tried to defeat the progressives last year — including Trump allies — are now trying to oust the elected DA By TIM REDMOND JULY 5, 2021 (48hills.org) Gavin Newsom is essentially running against Donald Trump in the recall. His ads, which are running on… Continue reading ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Chesa.png\")
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