Trump-Voting Faulconer Joins Recall Newsom Effort Funded by ‘Dark Money’

Could Faulconer Really Represent 11 Million California Voters Who Voted for Biden?

By Frank Gormlie

Well, your former mayor didn’t take long to get back into the political spotlight.

Kevin Faulconer has established his mandatory exploratory committee to make a run for governor of California. And at the same time, he has jumped onto the “Recall Newsom” bandwagon, a bandwagon being pushed by “dark money”, it has come out.

So, Kevin has his feet in both pots: a gubernatorial campaign and getting ready to benefit if the recall effort is successful (unlikely however).

Now, don’t forget, our Republican mayor recently admitted he voted for Trump in November 2020.

Let’s repeat that. While mayor of blue San Diego, Kevin Faulconer voted for Donald Trump for re-election, the same Trump that has refused to concede the election and who is busy plotting a coup for this week in his latest attempt to smash American democracy.

Kevin Faulconer in a ‘color-reverse’ photo

And the man who thinks he can represent California has to look at 11 million Biden voters and tell them he’s the guy. (Did Faulconer ever congratulate Biden or other Democrats who won?)

Faulconer – from Point Loma, a local boy – is joining a movement fueled by the dark money of shady investors.

Just on Monday, Ann Ravel, the former chair of the Federal Election Commission, filed a complaint against a major donor to the recall campaign, and alleged a “shell company” was being used to hide the identities of its donors. Her complaint – filed with the state Attorney General’s Office and Fair Political Practices Commission – is about a $500,000 contribution to Rescue California, one of the main groups organizing the recall effort. The donation was made by Irvine-based Prov. 3:9 LLC.

“Dark money” contributions are those where the identities of the donors are not revealed, and are not allowed in California because state law requires the true sources of campaign donations to be publicly disclosed. In her complaint, Ravel asserted:

“The entity appears to be nothing more than a shell company being used to evade disclosure of the person or persons funding the recall contribution. But the people of California are entitled to know who is trying to force a costly special recall election that could cost $80 [million to] $100 million just months before the primary elections for the same office. Such a dark money scheme is antithetical to a functioning democracy and in violation of the State’s comprehensive campaign finance laws.”

She also urged state agencies to immediately launch investigations and to use their subpoena power to determine the identities of the donors.

The LA Times reported that state business records show Prov. 3:9 LLC described as a firm that provides “consulting services,” and that the two people listed as representatives for the firm were Thomas Liu and Gordon Schaller, both from Irvine. Thomas Liu, listed as the manager of Prov 3:9, told Politico: “We have our beliefs in terms of the direction the state needs to go, and we felt that this effort was worthy of our contribution.” The investors and owners of the entity are not known.

In addition, another high-roller who is funding the recall movement is Sequoia Capital’s Douglas Leone and his wife Patricia Perkins-Leone who have contributed roughly $100,000. Leone is an American billionaire venture capitalist with a net worth of over $5 Billion.

These are the people leading the fight to get rid of Newsom. And now Faulconer has joined them.