Newsom recalls trying to get closer to the vote
The recall from the California government, Gavin Newsom, gets closer to making the vote now that 1.1 million signatures have been submitted; Remember Gavin Newsom senior advisor Randy Economy joins ‘Fox and Friends Weekend.’
Former Newport Beach Mayor Will O’Neill took to Facebook on Friday to draw attention to California Governor Gavin Newsom’s use of ‘committed payments’, a technically legal but highly opaque practice that can generate untold “ donations ” for the favorite projects of politicians. and non-profit organizations.
O’Neill, who served as mayor of the coastal city of Orange County between 2019 and 2020, asked readers to imagine running a business, and Newsom asks for a donation “to a cause he cares about” .
“Seems like a shakedown, right? No, perfectly legal. It’s called a ‘requested payment,'” O’Neill wrote.
Under California law, tolerated payments in excess of $ 5,000 must be reported. But unlike political donations, there are no limits. The practice is relatively obscure and not often used. For example, in 2019, Newsom’s administration reported only $ 12 million in billed payments.
But in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic erupted and the governor’s emergency powers were expanded, payments to various entities – at Newsom’s request – skyrocketed to a whopping $ 226 million, according to data from the state commission on fair political practices. (FPPC).
Delinquencies have increased to $ 226 million in 2020, from $ 12 million the year before.
(FPPC)
In 2020, Newsom raised $ 45 million from Blue Shield of California and Kaiser Permanente for its housing initiative. Blue Shield’s President and CEO Paul Markovich, later served as Co-Chair of the Governor’s COVID-19 Testing Task Force. And last month, the governor chose both Blue Shield and Kaiser Permanente to help manage vaccine distribution in California.
Since the outbreak, Verily Life Sciences – which is under the same parent company as Google – has received up to $ 44 million in three separate contracts from the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to operate COVID-19 test sites.
O’Neill cited reports from CapRadio, a Sacramento NPR affiliate, showing that UnitedHealth donated $ 220,000 to political committees controlled by Newsom between 2018 and 2019, which later awarded $ 492 million in contracts to UnitedHealth subsidiaries in bidding and accelerated situations.
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Bloom Energy, a California-based company, contributed approximately $ 85,000 to Newsom between September 2018 and October 2020, CapRadio reported. In March 2020, the company received a $ 1 million no-offer contract – later increased to $ 2 million – to renovate fans, the outlet said.
CapRadio also reported that Chinese manufacturing company BYD made two $ 20,000 contributions to Newsom between March 2018 and November 2019. In April 2020, the company was awarded a mask contract worth nearly $ 1 billion.
In his Facebook post, O’Neill added a quote from Bob Stern, a registered Democrat and former general counsel to the California FPPC, saying, “I really think the Governor has a boon in terms of receiving massive campaign contributions and providing any contracts for companies that gave him these contributions. ”
“Tin ear” is a way of saying it. What would you call it? ” O’Neill.
FILE: Gavin Newsom of California holds up a vial of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center in Los Angeles.
(AP)
It is not the first time that the former Republican mayor has called the Democratic governor. Last May, when California – like the rest of the country – was severely shut down to curb the spread of the coronavirus, O’Neill slammed Newsom on his order to close beaches in Orange County.
Speaking on “Tucker Carlson Tonight”, O’Neill accused Newsom of closing 43 miles of beaches in Orange County, “not because of data, but because of politics.”
“At our local hospital, we have 475 beds. They never treated more than 25 people at a time, and yesterday they had nine people treating them, and only one percent of their ventilators were used.”
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The criticism of the paid payments comes as Newsom faces the likely prospect of a recall due to its draconian response to the pandemic. Recall Gavin 2020 senior advisor Randy Economy told Fox News on Sunday that the campaign has collected more than 1.72 million signatures. That’s more than 200,000 above the required threshold to qualify for a vote, but organizers are aiming for 2 million signatures by the March 17 deadline to compensate for invalidated signatures.
“Our work continues … we won’t stop (until) the last day March 17,” Economy told Fox News. “We are delighted with the progress and this movement is changing politics as we know it here in California and across America.”
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Fox News has repeatedly attempted to contact Newsom’s news agency asking for comment on the recall, but has received no response.