I got that very slick mailer today in the mail. They haven’t even passed the legislation for the referendum yet and this is already being sent to Californians.
Who in the world is Charles Munger?
Charles Munger Jr., the megadonor backing Republicans’ effort to block Democrats from redrawing California’s congressional map, has primarily been known to the public as the bow-tie-wearing champion of good-government causes like independent redistricting and legislative transparency.
But there’s a lesser-known aspect of Munger’s financial giving that Democrats are preparing to torch him on.
Munger, a Palo Alto physicist, has contributed more than $158,000 to socially conservative causes over the last 25 years, according to federal tax filings — including to organizations that oppose abortion rights and promote so-called crisis pregnancy centers, and to Christian groups whose leaders have opposed LGBTQ+ rights.
Munger’s spending, via his charitable nonprofit, is providing fodder to abortion-rights advocates and LGBTQ+ leaders in their effort to build support for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s push to gerrymander California’s congressional districts in favor of Democrats — a gambit that Newsom says will neutralize President Donald Trump’s effort to nab five new Republican House seats in Texas.
[…]
Good-government reforms have dominated much of Munger’s civic spending. But IRS filings for his CNC Foundation, which he’s funded with Berkshire Hathaway stock, outline a host of conservative causes. He gave:
- $70,000 to First Resort (later renamed Third Box), which operated crisis pregnancy centers in San Francisco and the Bay Area. City leaders accused the centers of masquerading as women’s health clinics while promoting an anti-abortion agenda. San Francisco later passed an ordinance to prohibit such centers from engaging in misleading advertising.
- $3,400 to the Christian Legal Society, an association of lawyers who promote a host of conservative legal causes, including celebrating the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
- Nearly $83,000 to Campus Crusade for Christ, which promotes religious ministries on college and middle school and high school campuses. The organization teaches that same-sex attraction is “contrary to God’s design for human sexuality” and has promoted conversion therapy.
Jodi Hicks, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, is among those highlighting Munger’s support of conservative causes. She has been at the forefront of Democrats’ redistricting push and spoke at a news conference alongside Newsom last week.
“His contributions to those organizations speak to his values and the agenda he supports — an extreme agenda that hurts LGBTQ people, women and people of color,” Hicks said in a statement.
This is California and all that stuff matters here. It aligns him with the right which is toxic here. So, I hope they do what’s necessary to neutralize this guy.
He’s not alone. Schwarzenegger is going to try to help tank this referendum too and he has more clout. I’m sure that Trump is going to spend massive sums as well. It will be a battle. I don’t make predictions anymore about politics but I hope it will. I suspect that California is sick of being treated like a vassal state and resent the hell out of how he and the rest of these MAGA people talk about and treat the people of this state.
Trump has sicced masked thugs on California cities and we don’t like it. He treated us like dirt when we suffered from a freak firestorm and blamed us for it. I think most of us understand the stakes for us as Americans and Californians. I hope we heed the call and do what’s we can to stop this grotesque power grab.
This is Charles Munger, BTW:
