Tech companies offer up millions as ‘behested payments’

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – Gov. Gavin Newsom solicited donations totaling nearly $227 million from Facebook, Google, Blue Shield and other private California companies and organizations to combat the coronavirus pandemic and help run parts of his administration, according to a report Thursday by the state’s political watchdog agency.

“Behested payments” are contributions solicited by an elected official to be given to another individual or organization. They are less regulated than campaign contributions and grew 10-fold from 2019, Newsom’s first year in office, and 2020, when the pandemic arrived.

Facebook contributed nearly $27 million to the Democratic governor’s causes, mostly for gift cards to nursing home workers. Blue Shield of California gave $20 million toward homeless programs. Those companies were the two top donors, said the Fair Political Practices Commission, which oversees and enforces California’s campaign finance and political ethics laws.

Listed beneficiaries include the governor’s office for $42.5 million and the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services for $26 million. There was also money supporting California’s Alzheimer’s Task Force, Newsom’s California Climate Action Corps initiatives, a California Climate Day of Action, and consulting services for the administration’s Master Plan for Aging.

While California limits the amount of gifts and campaign contributions to politicians, there are no limits on behested payments. They are reportable only if they are made at the suggestion of a public official to someone else for a legislative, governmental or charitable purpose, and only if payments from a single source reach $5,000 in a calendar year.

“Unprecedented times, call for an unprecedented response,” Newsom spokesperson Daniel Lopez said in a statement.

He said the governor “has been committed to utilizing the innovative spirit of our private sector” and is “leveraging that strength to help improve the lives of all Californians.”

There is no suggestion that Newsom or his donors acted improperly. But critics say that while the payments don’t directly benefit the politician, they can indirectly curry favor.

Despite the nature of such behested payments, Lopez said hundreds of companies including Facebook and Blue Shield reached out to the governor’s office, not the other way around.

Campaign watchdogs fall into two camps on behested payments, said Loyola Law School professor Jessica Levinson, former president of the Los Angeles Ethics Commission.

Some believe such contributions “are the devil’s work, and they’re clearly a loophole around contribution limits and people just give them to curry favor with elected officials,” she said.

She tends to fall into the second camp, that money will inevitably flow through politics and would otherwise go to campaign accounts or independent expenditure committees.

“So if people are going to try and curry favor with elected officials, which they will, then let’s at least have that money go to a good cause,” she said.

She said the big issue is having the payments be transparently disclosed, so voters can make informed decisions on the donations and outcome.