National Democrats are trying hard to see to it that supporters of Jerry Brown never have to sing “if I had billion dollars” in the California gubernatorial race. Brown, the likely Democratic nominee, will face off against one of two Republican billionaires currently vying for their party’s nomination, and Democrats are already trying to mitigate Brown’s cash disadvantage.
Today, the DGA and a California group launched the “California Accountability Project,” which they say will fact-check ads and statements coming from GOP candidates Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner on the primary campaign trail. Meanwhile, unions and well-heeled national Democratic donors have launched their own campaign to balance the large personal fortunes of both Republicans, a plan they call “Level the Playing Field 2010.”
Brown, a former governor of California and the state’s current Attorney General, already has $12 million in the bank to fight whichever Republican faces him in the fall. Though certainly not chump change, it’s not much when compared to the tens of millions either former tech executive Poizner or ex-E-Bay CEO Whitman could drop on the contest without making a sizable dent in their personal fortunes.
On a call with bloggers announcing their program today, DGA communications director Emily DeRose wouldn’t say exactly how much her group is spending on the “Accountability Project,” characterizing the spending as “substantial.” But DeRose noted that it’s still early in the California contest, and said that her organization plans to stay involved as the race moves ahead.
The local director of the project, Nick Velasquez, told bloggers that in the early stages, the goal of the project was to use viral and social media to push its responses to Republican rhetoric during the primary race. Velasquez said his group has already begun sending trackers to Whitman and Poizner events, and will post the results of the what they find on the project’s Website, which launched today.
He said the program will focus on both Republican candidates, despite the fact that polling shows Whitman running away with the primary race. “We’re not going to focus on one or the other,” he told TPMDC today. “We believe we can handle factchecking both at the same time.”
The “Level the Playing Field” group is made up of “progressive unions and wealthy donors,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle, which first reported on the project this morning. Organizers of the program hope to raise $20 million to spend on independent expenditures to bolster Brown’s coffers.
“The idea is to allow Democrats to take on the largely self-funded Whitman without having to worry about the gubernatorial campaign contribution limits that are certain to put a lid on Brown’s own spending,” the paper reported.
Late Update: Another organization of wealthy Democratic donors and unions has emerged to help California Democrats make up the funding gap with their wealthy opponents, TPMDC has learned. A group for former Gov. Gray Davis aides and California business leaders filed paperwork today to launch “California Working Families 2010,” which hopes to raise $20-$30 million to support Brown, Sen. Barbara Boxer and other Democratic candidates on the ballot this year.
