Gavin Newsom’s Pay-to-Play Politics: Is California is FOR SALE?

Known as “behested” payments, this isn’t the Governor’s first rodeo. He accepted more than $700,000 from two major law firms in 2021 to both create and defend his Executive Order to repeal death penalty rules and dismantle the death chamber at San Quentin, James Lacy reported.

Gov. Gavin Newsom “behested” $3.5 million in 2018, the year he was elected governor. In 2019, he reported behested payments totaling $12.1 million, the Orange County Register reported in “Behested payments and the specter of corruption.”

But wait! There’s more.

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and when the governor’s emergency powers were greatly expanded, payments to various entities – at Newsom’s “behest” – shot up to a whopping $226 million, according to data from the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC), Fox News reported:

$45 million from Blue Shield of California and Kaiser Permanente for his housing initiative – and then the governor chose both Blue Shield and Kaiser Permanente to help manage vaccine distribution in California.

Between 2018 and 2019, UnitedHealth donated $220,000 to political committees controlled by Newsom, who later awarded $492 million in contracts to UnitedHealth subsidiaries in no-bid and expedited situations.

That’s a $220,000 investment for a $492 million return. Not bad.

There is a lot more, but you get the point.

The Free Beacon continues:

“In April 2024, a few months before Newsom sent his letter to the Biden Interior Department, the Democratic governor requested Graton Rancheria to contribute $500,000 to his wife’s charity, the California Partners Project. And in April 2025, one month before Newsom filed his lawsuit against the Trump administration, he again asked Graton Rancheria to contribute another $500,000 to his wife’s charity. The tribe cut those checks specifically at Newsom’s request, according to California’s “behested payments” database, which discloses whenever state elected officials request others to make donations on their behalf.

While the data doesn’t show an explicit quid pro quo between Newsom and Graton Rancheria, several ethics experts told the Washington Free Beacon that Newsom’s charitable solicitations from the tribe to his wife’s charity just before he used the powers of his office to try to block its rival from opening a competing casino raises major red flags.”

Siebel Newsom’s California Partners Project “champions gender equity across the state and ensures our states media and technology industries are a force for good in the lives of all children.”

Siebel Newsom has another charity, “The Representation Project,” in which she produces “Gender Justice” films and sells them to California’s public schools.

“California Governor Gavin Newsom helped bankroll his wife’s charity with nearly $2million he solicited from a Native American tribe – while fighting on its behalf to kill a rival casino,” The Daily Mail reported this week.

“Now the governor’s office has reacted angrily to questions Daily Mail asked about the payments, called it ‘insulting and offensive’ to even be asked whether his official actions on behalf on the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria (FIGR) amount to a quid-pro-quo. Records show that the governor personally requested the ‘behest payments’ from FIGR.”

“The Bay Area tribe donated $1.8million to The California Partners Project, a nonprofit co-founded by Newsom’s wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and another $450,000 to fund his inaugurations.

Newsom and the state then joined the tribe’s efforts to block a casino from opening just 15 miles from theirs, filing a lawsuit in May challenging the federal government’s approval of the project.”

Records show that from 2018 to 2024, the California governor solicited a total of $2.25million from the FIGR – with the majority going to Jennifer’s charity, the Daily Mail said.

This is pay-to-play politics, or legally known as “quid pro quo”, Latin meaning “something for something.”

So the many controversies tied to the Newsom family and administration finances include, but are not limited to:

• FireAid relief funds: Following the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, the FireAid benefit concerts raised $100 million. Investigations revealed the money went to nonprofits rather than directly to victims. Actor Spencer Pratt publicly accused Newsom and his California Volunteers (Cal Vols) office of receiving a FireAid grant. The Globe detailed how funds were distributed to various organizations, prompting calls for federal scrutiny over transparency and use.

• State Auditor findings: A December 2025 California State Auditor report named Governor Newsom and eight agencies as “high-risk,” criticizing mismanagement of billions in federal COVID-19 funds, public safety lapses, and infrastructure neglect.

• Real estate and LLC opacity: In late 2024, Newsom purchased a $9.1 million mansion in Kentfield, Marin County, through a private LLC. By May 2025, Jennifer Siebel Newsom was listed as the manager of that LLC. The home was acquired from billionaire Hyatt Hotels heir Daniel Pritzker.
• Winery and donor ties: Newsom has long held interests in the PlumpJack winery group. Past Globe coverage connected donor networks, including Silicon Valley Bank ties to entities linked to the First Partner’s other nonprofits, such as the California Partners Project.
• CCP financial ties: Newsom has faced repeated criticism for deepening California’s engagement with the Chinese Communist Party, including a 2023 trip to China where he met President Xi Jinping, signed multiple climate and economic MOUs, and promoted subnational ties. Critics, including GOP lawmakers and reports, have highlighted campaign contributions from executives tied to CCP-linked firms (such as BYD), partnerships through the California-China Climate Institute with CCP-affiliated groups, and appointments of allies with connections to Chinese officials. These relationships have raised national security and influence concerns amid U.S.-China tensions.
• The Newsom’s two large mansions, secretively purchased by shady LLCs only days before closing. Where did the money come from? Who is the LLC? The $3.7 million mansion in Sacramento magically appeared for the Newsoms shortly after his election, despite the renovation of the California Governor’s mansion costing taxpayers $4.1 million to $4.6 million by Newsom’s predecessor Gov. Jerry Brown. And in 2024, Governor Newsom and the “First Partner” purchased a $9.1 million home back in Marin County. The Marin mansion is 5,600 square feet, with Newsoms paying 7% above the asking price through a dodgy LLC.
• The Globe broke the story about the Newsom family trip to Cabo San Lucas in 2021 during the governor’s statewide Covid lockdowns. They stayed at a $29,000 per night villa, La Datcha Cabo San Lucas villa, owned by Russian entrepreneur and businessman Oleg Tinkov. At $29,000 per night for the holiday rate, did Gov. Newsom pay for the luxury villa? If not, who picked up the tab for the $203,000 week-long stay at La Datcha Cabo San Lucas vacation villa for the Newsoms? Was it a gift? Gavin Newsom paid $203,000 for a vacation when he made $209,747 in 2020 as governor?

You decide. And maybe the DOJ investigation will look into all of this. Where there is smoke, especially in California, there is usually fire.