With a record amount of money pouring into the California governor's race, billionaire candidate Tom Steyer wants to make it clear he's not the only big spender influencing the election.
The progressive Democrat, who is worth an estimated $2.4 billion, defended his colossal campaign costs when asked if he was trying to buy his way into becoming Governor Gavin Newsom's successor during a Wednesday appearance on MS NOW.
"Look, I'm the only billionaire on the ballot, but I am very far from the only billionaire in this race," said Steyer, who has contributed a whopping $195 million of his personal money to his campaign. "The billionaires and the corporations have lined up against me, and they're supporting everybody but me."
Northern California utilities behemoth Pacific Gas and Electric spent a historic $12 million on ads targeting Steyer, who is vowing to cut electric bills by breaking it and the other two regional monopolies that run the state's grid up into smaller companies.
PG&E, along with Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric, controls distribution over an estimated 75% of the state's consumer utilities market, according to California's Legislative Analyst's Office. All three donated big to fellow Democrat Xavier Becerra throughout his political career.
The hedge fund investor and environmental activist pointed to Becerra's ties to oil and energy giants as he asked, "It's coming down to, do you want change in California and do you want to take on the electric monopoly and the oil companies who are gouging you at the pump?"
Though Becerra's platform includes promises to help invest in clean energy infrastructure for California, where California's energy monopolies have also invested heavily in recent years, oil titan Chevron also maxed out its donations to the former Biden cabinet member's campaign.
While speaking with MS NOW, Steyer also questioned whether Becerra was committed to bringing single-payer healthcare to California, something the billionaire progressive has made central to his gubernatorial campaign despite opposing a single-payer system during his long-shot 2020 presidential campaign.
Claiming that his opponent has been two-faced about his support for single payer, Steyer said, "Xavier said 'yes' in public, but then, in private, he assured people he wouldn't."
"This is a very simple race about change," he went on, noting the glut of 62 candidates crowding this year's gubernatorial ballot.
"In the end, this race has simplified into a change versus no-change race, into a people versus the corporations race, and that's exactly where we are, and that's exactly what we're seeing," Steyer concluded.
Not mentioned was the clean $1 million Google co-founder Sergey Brin shelled out to a political action committee backing tech-friendly San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan's campaign. Playing both sides, Brin also cut a check for the maximum personal donation amount of $39,200 for Steve Hilton, a British-American Fox News personality running as a Republican.
Polling commissioned by the Democratic Party has revealed no clear frontrunner. According to numbers gathered on May 16, Hilton has a slim edge with 22% support compared to Becerra's 21% and Steyer's 15%.
Primaries officially take place on June 2, though many California voters vote early by mail.
