Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former chief of staff was arrested on federal charges of public corruption on Wednesday. There was a statewide gasp of shock. You could almost hear the words spoken in unison in every government office, trade association, consultant business and lobbyist shop in California:
“It’s illegal???”
Yes, according to the federal government, it’s illegal to run a scheme to siphon money from a campaign account, pass it through a lot of consultants and land it in the bank accounts of people with no-show jobs. Former Newsom chief of staff Dana Williamson is alleged to have done that.
It’s also illegal to grift off the COVID paycheck protection program and to deduct the cost of personal luxuries as business expenses on your federal tax return, thereby failing to pay what Democrats like to call “your fair share.” Williamson was charged with conspiracy and tax evasion.
Notice that there have been no state prosecutions. No campaign finance regulators audited the oddity of $10,000-per-month payments to a political consultant from a campaign committee that was just a motionless pot to park money.
Former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra owned the committee at the center of these charges, “Becerra for Superintendent of Public Instruction, 2030.” At the time the $10,000-per-month payments were leaving that account, Becerra was the Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Biden administration.
Now he’s back in California, running for governor in 2026. But the campaign committee for the 2030 race for superintendent is still active. As of June 30, the Becerra for Superintendent committee reported having a little more than $1.4 million in cash on hand. The Becerra for Governor committee ended the second quarter with $2.1 million.
Sometimes donors love a candidate so madly, they wish there were two committees so they could give twice as much. This is what Democrats like to call “a norm.”
The Democratic leader of the state Senate, Mike McGuire, currently has three active state campaign committees, separate from the federal committee that will accept donations for his just-announced run for Congress. As of June 30, McGuire had more than $1.1 million in his McGuire for Insurance Commissioner 2026 committee, $691,301 in the McGuire Ballot Measure Committee, and $84,362 in his still-active McGuire for State Senate 2022 committee.
Generally speaking, everything’s legal in California politics as long as the forms are filled out correctly.
In August 2019, San Diego Democratic Assemblyman Todd Gloria failed to fill out a form correctly. He signed a statement of intention under penalty of perjury saying he was running for reelection to the Assembly in 2020. But he was running for mayor of San Diego at the time. The false statement allowed him to transfer his leftover campaign funds from 2018, about $300,000, to a fake 2020 campaign committee account. That prevented the 2018 funds from becoming “surplus,” meaning he might have had to donate them to, perish the thought, charity.
After one of his opponents for mayor complained to the Fair Political Practices Commission that Gloria was collecting donations for the fake Assembly race that exceeded the contribution limits for the mayor’s race, Gloria was fined $200 for the false statement. Today he’s mayor of San Diego.
The California Secretary of State’s website shows a long list of 2030 campaign committees where money has been parked by current office holders. For example, Los Angeles City Councilman Adrin Nazarian, who previously served in the state Assembly from 2012 to 2022, has $636,466 in a Nazarian for State Controller 2030 campaign committee. Reports filed with the Secretary of State show that in the first half of this year the committee had more than $14,000 in expenditures, mostly for taxes, credit card payments and donations to Democratic party organizations. Nazarian’s salary as a city council member is $244,727 annually, but the donors to his past campaigns are covering a few expenses here and there.
Dana Williamson pleaded not guilty to all charges against her, but two others charged in the scheme, Sacramento lobbyist Greg Campbell and former Becerra chief of staff Sean McCluskie, entered into plea deals last week. Williamson’s attorney, McGregor Scott, told Politico the FBI asked Williamson last year to assist in an investigation into Newsom. He said she refused, stating that “she had not seen any misconduct by the governor of any kind.”
But you wouldn’t believe what’s legal in California.
For elected officials who fill out the forms correctly, it’s completely legal to call people with business before the state and ask them to make enormous contributions for “charitable,” “legislative” or “governmental” purposes that happen to benefit the elected official and family members. This is a category of unlimited political donations called “behested payments,” as in “payments made at the behest” of an elected official.
Newsom has used this legalized shakedown to direct more than $3.7 million of other people’s money to his wife’s “California Partners Project,” for the “charitable” purpose of supporting “the work.” In April, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria gave $500,000. Five-figure donors last year include the California Chamber of Commerce, Blue Shield of California, Pinterest and The California Endowment.
Overall, Newsom has hit up the California Endowment, a nonprofit foundation, for more than $5.6 million. This includes $5 million in COVID relief money, $150,000 to help migrants crossing the border into California, and $10,000 to the California State Protocol Foundation to support “convening to discuss cell phone use in schools.”
Newsom also shoveled more than $4 million of the $8.8 million he “behested” from special-interest donors for his inaugural festivities into the California State Protocol Foundation, which paid for his photogenic trip to China in 2023.
Newsom “behested” California Forward, a “multi-partisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit” into paying almost $382,000 in 2022-23 to Antonio Villaraigosa, now a candidate for governor, for a job as an “infrastructure czar” who could not be paid by the state for some reason.
It’s all legal, at least under California law. Under federal law, the new state capital might be Alcatraz.
Write Susan@SusanShelley.com and follow her on X @Susan_Shelley