The Ruling Class-- Republicans AND Democrats

Today, Andrew Cuomo is expected to win a resounding primary victory in New York. Think about that next time you smear at Republicans who are so enamored of Señor Trumpanzee and who-- with help from the Kremlin-- saddled our country with him. Overall, Cuomo probably isn't as bad as Trump; but when it comes to corruption... the two are in the same category of horrible.

On Tuesday, Aida Chavez reported on another aspect of Cuomo-- his manipulation of Republicans and the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- in New York, the IDC-- to control the state's legislative process and keep the progressive agenda off his desk. He is notorious for having enabled the IDC, the breakaway group of state Senate Democrats who caucused with the Republican minority to give them control of the chamber in a Democratic state. He finally dissolved the alliance after Cynthia Nixon began her primary campaign against him. "But," wrote Chavez, "his choice to hire numerous staff from across the aisle has gone largely unexamined. Cuomo has repeatedly touted his ability to work across party lines, and judging by the number of Republicans he’s hired for key positions in his administration, he’s right.

“Governor Cuomo slashed school funding in order to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy, and when you look at his staff, you hardly have to wonder why,” Nixon campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt said in an email to The Intercept. “The Governor has surrounded himself with former top Republican staffers because, at his core, he simply is not a progressive. He’s allowed our subways and other infrastructure to rot, he’s sent out Donald Trump style campaign mailers to divide New Yorkers along religious lines, and-- working with the IDC-- he’s blocked critical progressive legislation like Medicare for All.”

Democratic voters don't know what to make of this, especially with familiar big names from corporatist status quo Democrats like Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand backing him.

And, tragically, Cuomo and New York aren't the only blue states where these kinds of shenanigans go on to thwart the progressive vision. When Kevin de León passed a Medicare-for-All type bill in the state Senate last year, Governor Brown call his lackey, Assembly Speaker, Anthony Rendon, and said he doesn't want to see that bill landing on his desk. He never did. California has a Democratic governor and an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature. The Assembly has 80 members-- 55 Democrats and 25 Republicans. The state Senate has 40 members-- 26 Democrats and 14 Republicans. Sounds like a dream come true, right? But California is plagued with corrupt corporate Democrats in the legislature and what is called the "mod squad," every bit as bad as New York's IDC. Corrupt right-of-center fake Democrats like Adam Gray (Merced), Jim Cooper (Elk Grove), Rudy Salas (Bakersfield), Mike Gipson (Carson), Tony Thurmond (Richmond), Henry Perea (Fresno) and Tom Daly (Anaheim). They are the equivalent of the New Dems in national politics. And corporations-- like Chevron-- and wealthy Republicans finance them, just the way wealthy Republicans have been financing conservative Democrats against progressives in congressional primaries this cycle.

Gordon Getty and Gavin 

A few years ago-- the last time Gavin Newsom was running for governor-- he called a meeting of Los Angeles political bloggers. He was slick and effective-- and he knew more about every topic that was brought up than anyone in the room. I would say that everyone in the room came away a Newsom supporter but one... me. To me he was an entitled corporate shill, a smart one by a venal one. A few days ago, the L.A. Times did an exhaustive follow-the-money piece on Newsom, How eight elite San Francisco families funded Gavin Newsom’s political ascent. They should have run it during the primary season, not now when we're stuck with no choice but to vote for him (or not vote). "Gavin Newsom," wrote the Times' team, "wasn’t born rich, but he was born connected-- and those alliances have paid handsome dividends throughout his career. A coterie of San Francisco’s wealthiest families has backed him at every step of his political rise, which in November could lead next to his election as governor of California. San Francisco society’s 'first families'-- whose names grace museum galleries, charity ball invitations and hospital wards-- settled on Newsom, 50, as their favored candidate two decades ago, said Willie Brown, former state Assembly speaker and former mayor of the city. 'He came from their world, and that’s why they embraced him without hesitancy and over and above everybody else,' said Brown, who is a mentor to Newsom. 'They didn’t need to interview him. They knew what he stood for.'” Like, for example, the billionaire Getty family. "Newsom was at the center of the social scene led by the younger generation of San Francisco’s wealthy families. Those relationships would form the foundation of his life in politics. 'These kids had all grown up together, or played sports or gone to school together or later dated,' said Catherine Bigelow, a longtime San Francisco society writer."

A Times review of campaign finance records identified eight of San Francisco’s best-known families as being among Newsom’s most loyal and long-term contributors. Among those patrons are the Gettys, the Pritzkers and the Fishers, whose families made their respective fortunes in oil, hotels and fashion. They first backed him when he was a restaurateur and winery owner running for a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1998, and have continued their support through the governor’s race.

They are not Newsom’s largest donors: The families in total have given about $2 million of the $61 million that donors have contributed to his campaigns and independent committees backing those bids. But they gave while he was a relative unknown, providing crucial support to a political newcomer in the years before his campaign accounts piled high with cash from labor unions, Hollywood honchos, tech billionaires and donors up and down the state.

Now the families appear poised to see their investments pay off.

These donors are mostly liberal, inspired by Newsom’s history as an early supporter of progressive causes, including same-sex marriage as San Francisco mayor in 2004. But some are Republicans, including President Trump’s new ambassador to Austria, who are drawn by Newsom’s background as a small businessman.

...Gordon and Ann Getty viewed him as a son, according to interviews the couple gave to the San Francisco Chronicle and W Magazine, and they provided him with experiences his parents could not afford, including an African safari when he was a teen, Newsom said in an earlier interview with The Times.

“It all goes back to the Gettys as far as Gavin is concerned,” said Jerry Roberts, former managing editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and an expert on Bay Area politics.

In addition to helping fund Newsom’s early business ventures, the family has been a mainstay as he pursued his political ambitions. Eighteen Gettys-- including Gordon, Ann and actor Balthazar Getty-- have collectively donated more than a half-million dollars to Newsom’s nine campaigns, starting with a total of $750 to his 1998 campaign for supervisor. Members of the family have spent more than $362,000 supporting his current gubernatorial bid.

Others who have bankrolled Newsom right from the beginning include Doris Fisher, the billionaire founder of the Gap, George Marcus, billionaire founder of Marcus & Millichap, one of the largest real estate companies in the country, the Pritzker family, descendants of the founders of the Hyatt Hotel chain and the Swig family, which owns the iconic Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill (now a worldwide chain).

Newsom defeated an actual progressive, Supervisor Matt Gonzalez, to win the mayoralty. Newsom grabbed onto safe, showy social issues to try to claim progressivism-- like backing marriage equality. It worked.

“These are families that have been around for a long time. They’ve been very dedicated to supporting culture, supporting social causes and also putting their money where their mouths are, and keeping their businesses in San Francisco through the good times and the bad times,” Swig said.“There are guys in Washington who make fun of San Francisco values, but really San Francisco values are those that find their core in the families that have been around 75 to 150 years, who have supported everything… good about San Francisco-- social, political and business. And Gavin recognizes that, appreciates that and respects that.”

Susie Tompkins Buell, the co-founder of clothing brand Esprit and outdoor retailer North Face, remembered Newsom as a young man.

“He was the boy about town. Everybody wanted to date him,” she said, recalling that one of her daughters was in a relationship with Newsom in the 1990s. “He was the smartest, the best-looking. He went through a cocky stage, and then an arrogant stage. Now he’s in a total serving stage. He paid his dues, I’ll tell you.”

Tompkins Buell said that while she always believed Newsom was charismatic and bright, she watched him mature as an elected official, husband and father.

“I’ve known him socially for a long time, but then when he was mayor, I observed a very evolving person as he handled his problems and grew into his job,” she said.

Tompkins Buell and her family have contributed more than $110,000 to Newsom’s political endeavors over the years, appreciative of his environmental and social policies, such as his efforts to redirect the city’s cash payments to San Francisco’s homeless to housing and services.

“I’ve watched him closely and I was very, very impressed by the quality of his visceral understanding of the problems we have,” she said.

Tompkins Buell is a confidante of Hillary Clinton who has spent millions of dollars backing Democratic candidates and causes. But Newsom’s support among San Francisco’s elite crosses party lines.

“We’re one of the few long-term, old-school Republican families in the city. This says a lot about Gavin, that he gets our votes, too, because we’re looking at 80 years of Republicanism,” said filmmaker Todd Traina, son of the late shipping magnate John Traina and philanthropist Dede Buchanan Wilsey. His brother Trevor, also a Newsom donor, is Trump’s ambassador to Austria.

Altogether, 10 members of the Traina family have given more than a quarter-million dollars to Newsom’s campaigns.

A blended family of Democrats and Republicans-- who come together to fund Gavin Newsom.

“We all separately backed him and we never internally talked about it,” Traina said, noting that he appreciated Newsom adding a businessman’s perspective to the county Board of Supervisors. “It wasn’t that we said we were making a family decision. It was more that we just all agreed that we liked him and we liked what he stood for.”

He added that his ties to Newsom go back to their time as teenagers, when Newsom attended Redwood High School in Marin County and Traina attended University High School in San Francisco.

“We were sports rivals and we had the same group of friends, and he just really had a winning personality and was very likable,” Traina said. “He was very similar to the way he is now-- spunky, bright, charming, he lit up a room. I wouldn’t have known at the time he had a definite interest in politics, but he has always had the same personality.”

The Traina family roots go back to shipping magnate John Traina, who was married to Dede Buchanan and then romance novelist Danielle Steel. Buchanan, whose great-grandfather founded Dow Chemical, later married real estate magnate Alfred Wilsey. She remains a major philanthropic force in the city, notably raising more than $200 million to rebuild the earthquake-damaged De Young Museum.

Richard Guggenhime, a prominent San Francisco attorney who provides financial advice to wealthy families, has spent four decades working for various civic boards. Currently on the city’s airport commission, a position to which Newsom first appointed him, Guggenhime has given Newsom more than $30,000 in his bid to become governor. In 1998, his wife, Judy, now chairwoman of the San Francisco General Hospital foundation board, gave Newsom $250 to help kickstart his supervisor campaign.

Richard Guggenhime did not respond to a request for comment.

Roberts, the Chronicle’s former managing editor, said the role of San Francisco’s most prominent families in public life has shifted over the years. They have largely stopped seeking public seats, but still try to control the levers of power.

The longtime support for Newsom underscores that point.

“They phased out of any public visibility. But behind the scenes, they were still the ruling class,” Roberts said.