California Gov. Gavin Newsom sparked fierce outrage for soliciting donations to victims of the deadly Los Angeles wildfires via his super PAC, which pushed users to add their personal information to a Democratic fundraising site.
The NY Post reports Newsom, 57, posted a link on X to californiafirefacts.com, a website set up by his campaign committee, in response to what he claimed was misinformation on the wildfires.
But the site urges users to give money to the California Fire Foundation and links them to a module from ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s fundraising platform. The ActBlue donation box says the money is being raised by Campaign for Democracy, Newsom’s super PAC.
“Your donation will go directly towards supporting firefighters and the communities they serve, including direct financial support to impacted residents,” the site says.
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Users who donate via Newsom’s fundraising appeal are also automatically signing up for text messages from his super PAC, if they provide their phone numbers.
“Not a cent of these donations go to Gavin Newsom or his PAC. Gov. Newsom is proud to have raised $450,000 for the Fire Foundation in small-dollar contributions during these fires and is grateful for the people across the nation who have come together to help Californians in their time of need,” a spokesperson for Newsom told The Post.
Observers online also quickly pointed out that ActBlue takes a portion of all donations as a processing fee. ActBlue claims to “charge a flat rate of 3.95% on each donation” to “cover the processing cost.” The Post has contacted ActBlue for comment.
ActBlue is a controversial platform. Last year, congressional Republicans flagged that scores of transactions on ActBlue had been flagged as potentially suspicious or fraudulent.
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