Anti-Steyer PAC mimics name of a housing advocacy campaign

The anti-Tom Steyer PAC, California is Not for Sale, was in the news recently after new campaign finance disclosures revealed it had received $8 million from PG&E.

The PAC’s name is arguably an appropriate one for an independent expenditure committee attacking Steyer as just another billionaire looking out for himself. But sharp-eyed members of the Capitol community may recognize that it’s virtually identical to the name of a public education campaign organized by a group of progressive housing justice organizations.

California Not for Sale – no “is” – highlights the corrosive impact of political spending on housing policy. It’s backed by organizations like Tenants Together, PICO California and Housing Now!

“We’re still trying to figure out how to engage with this,” Housing Now! Executive Director Francisco Dueñas said of the similarly named efforts.

Dueñas said the PAC’s name has caused some confusion. He said the housing campaign has heard from people who don’t like Steyer as well as from a New York Times researcher who wanted information about a political poll.

This also isn’t the first time the housing campaign has felt that corporate interests have co-opted its messaging, Dueñas said.

“This is super ironic that these corporations are using the same tagline to put money in politics that we’re using to educate the public about how much they do this,” he said.

The only listed phone number for the California is Not for Sale PAC belongs to its treasurer, Deane & Company, which had no comment. Through a PAC funder, Capitol Weekly repeatedly tried to obtain contact information for someone with the PAC to comment on its name but received no response.

Contributions from four organizations
PG&E’s money came to the California is Not for Sale PAC through a donation the corporation originally made to another anti-Steyer PAC, Californians for Resilient and Affordable Energy. PG&E’s contribution is the largest one the California is Not for Sale PAC has received.

The PAC also has received $5 million from the California Association of Realtors, $1 million from the California Building Industry Association and $25,000 from the California Correctional Peace Officers Association.

That last one may raise some eyebrows given the PAC’s recent ad, which blasts Steyer for investing in “private prisons,” citing a 2019 Los Angeles Times article headlined, “Tom Steyer’s bets on private prisons and coal mining could spell trouble in 2020.”

Disclosures in the ad make no reference to CCPOA’s involvement in the PAC, saying in their entirety: “Not authorized by a candidate or a committee controlled by a candidate. Ad paid for by California is Not for Sale, No on Steyer for Governor 2026, a Coalition of Housing Advocates, Labor and Small Business. Ad Committee’s Top Funders: Californians for Resilient and Affordable Energy, No on Steyer for Governor 2026, Sponsored by the California Electric Utility Industry Labor Management Cooperation, PG&E, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245; California Association of REALTORS; California Building Industry Association.”

“I totally think it’s disingenuous,” said Democratic consultant Bill Wong, who doesn’t work for any of the gubernational campaigns, although one of his clients, United Domestic Workers, has endorsed Steyer. “If you’re going to attack him for investing in prisons and you’re prison guards, that’s a complete contradiction.”

Prison guards oppose private prisons
A spokesman for the prison guard union told Capitol Weekly that criticism is flawed.

“CCPOA was in fact a leading supporter of AB 32 (Bonta, 2019), which banned private prisons in California,” said the spokesperson, Nathan Ballard, in an email. “Calling attention to the fact that Tom Steyer profited from the very thing we’ve been fighting against for years is entirely consistent.

“AB 32 was authored by then-Assemblymember Rob Bonta, passed the Legislature in September 2019, was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on October 11, 2019, and chaptered as Chapter 739, Statutes of 2019, prohibiting CDCR from entering into or renewing contracts with private, for-profit prison operators after January 1, 2020, and barring the incarceration of any state inmate in a for-profit facility after January 1, 2028.”

It’s also accurate that CCPOA is not among the “top funders” of the PAC, providing a justification for not including its name on the ad disclosure.

Steyer’s campaign declined a Capitol Weekly request for comment on the ad and the PAC’s name. Campaign spokesperson Danni Wang said in a statement released after the ad aired that special interests are attacking Steyer “because they know he’s the only one who will hold them accountable.”

“Despite these misleading attempts,” she said, “Tom’s position has been consistent on taxing billionaires like himself, and he is the only candidate in this race calling on billionaires to pay more.”