California—the state that gave us Hollywood and Poverty Row, tech billionaires and tent cities, and a budget surplus that vanished faster than a Tesla in Ludicrous Mode—recently revealed a record deficit. It’s a place where the weather is beautiful (except when it’s not), the politics are theatrical (but the consequences are real), and the streets are lined with used syringes and fecal matter—which, coincidentally, could also be a metaphor for the state legislature.
And at the heart of it all, as predictable as a Bay Area power outage, is one of the slickest scams in modern governance: behested payments.
So What’s a Behest Anyway?
Now, let’s start with the dictionary definition—especially for those in Rancho Cucamonga. According to Merriam-Webster, behest means “an authoritative order” or “an urgent prompting.”
In other words, a command—the kind of thing a king might issue to his subjects.
Or, in California, the kind of thing King Gavin the Coifed issues to businesses eager to remain in his good graces—lest they be banished from the royal court of regulatory favors.
Decline the behest, and my liege, you may kiss the royal pomade canister.
Of course, Sacramento politicians would never order anyone to donate money. That would be unethical! Instead, they strongly encourage it—much like a grizzly bear in Stanislaus National Forest strongly urges you to drop your picnic basket before things get ugly. Technically, you could refuse, but the consequences might be… unpleasant.
How to Launder Influence, Sacramento-Style
Let’s say you run a major corporation in California. Maybe you’re a developer needing a building permit, a tech giant hoping to avoid new data regulations, or a health insurance company wanting to keep that lucrative Medi-Cal contract.
One day, your phone rings. It’s the governor’s office.
“Hey, folks—or whatever term is trending today on BlueSky—no pressure, but the governor is really passionate about this nonprofit initiative. It would be so great if your company could chip in. Totally voluntary, of course!”
Now, you could politely decline. But then, coincidentally, your project might hit some unexpected regulatory delays. Your permits could mysteriously get lost. That tax audit you never worried about might suddenly become a priority.
So instead, you “behest” yourself right over to your CFO, cut a six-figure check, and send it to the nonprofit. And just like that, you’ve made a “charitable donation” instead of a legally questionable campaign contribution.
Winner winner, Napa dinner.
Newsom’s Golden Touch
Nobody plays this game better than Governor Gavin Newsom, who could sell beachfront property in Death Valley if he wrapped it in the right buzzwords.
A man (I probably shouldn’t use this term since it may trigger him—oops, I did it again) so slick, so telegenic, and so shamelessly confident in his virtue that progressives believe he could sell America itself on their utopian fantasies—assuming, of course, that California doesn’t collapse into a Mad Max hellscape before he gets the chance.
A true MHGA™ man for the masses—Make Hairstylists Great Again™. Because we all know he’s not getting lined up at Floyd’s Barbershop for $20 and a tip.
Anyway, it’s become the go-to method for major corporations and foundations to funnel unlimited cash to California’s political royalty—no campaign finance laws required.
According to RealClearInvestigations, Governor Gavin Newsom—who directed more than $226.5 million in behested payments in 2020 when COVID emerged—reportedly facilitated another $13.85 million from the practice in 2024, including $450,000 from the Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund, $250,000 from Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, and $25,000 from CVS Pharmacy Inc.
So while ordinary Californians were publicly shamed for jogging maskless, Newsom was requesting (ahem, strongly encouraging) big corporations to donate millions to his preferred causes—because nothing screams high-powered virtue signaling like directing corporate cash to politically useful nonprofits.
At this rate, Governor Gavin is earning his USAID bona fides in real-time.
Mayor Karen Bass: The L.A. Edition
But don’t think Newsom has a monopoly on this game. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is also an expert in the art of directing money to politically useful causes. A master of priorities, Bass was living it up in Ghana for a presidential inauguration while her city was literally on fire.
Forget Nero fiddling while Rome burned—at least he had the decency to stay in town.
Bass took a luxury trip halfway across the planet, proving once again that when L.A. faces disaster, its leaders are more likely to book a flight than book a plan.
And when called to account for her undoubtedly five-star trip (for Ghana, at least) during a five-alarm fire disaster, she served up a word salad that reached Kamala Harris standards—long-winded, circular, and utterly devoid of meaning.
Indeed, Bass was en fuego.
And yet, when it comes to behested payments—a form of legalized palm-greasing that would make even Albert Bacon Fall blush—Bass is always right on the money.
Since taking office in 2022, she has personally influenced donors to make over $20.6 million in behested payments.
Where did most of it go? To the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles—a nonprofit conveniently run by people aligned with her administration. That’s $12.8 million funneled into a fund with fewer oversight mechanisms than Sam Bankman-Fried’s balance sheets.
And when L.A. was dealing with wildfire recovery, Bass tried to appoint former police commissioner Steve Soboroff as a “chief wildfire recovery officer”—for the low, low price of $500,000 for 90 days of work.
That’s over $5,500 a day—far more than Jim Rockford’s $200 a day plus expenses (and he’d defend every penny).
His business partner, Randy Johnson, was set to collect $250,000 for the same gig.
How does learning how much cash Soboroff was set to grab make this particular Johnson feel?
Probably small.
Soboroff later agreed to work for free, but only after public outrage threatened to hose the entire scheme—even if, according to an anonymous source, the money wasn’t technically coming from taxpayers but rather from three foundations conveniently linked to Bass: the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles, LA4LA Fund, and the Getty House Foundation.
Political Ads Disguised as “Public Awareness”
And here’s the rub: I’d bet a hefty chunk of these behested funds are really paying for political ads disguised as “public interest campaigns.”
You’ve seen them—those ads that don’t explicitly say “Re-elect Karen Feelings-Matter (D-Instagram),” but happen to spend millions on “raising awareness” about some issue that, shockingly, lines up perfectly with Karen’s re-election messaging.
Maybe it’s an ad about how you should trust the science—(a claim that requires Olympic-level suspension of disbelief).
Maybe it’s a heartwarming campaign about how getting jabbed saves Grandma from the grave so she can read to her grandkids—who, by the way, can’t read.
Maybe it’s a climate warning telling you to go green, or else Greta Thunberg is going to gas-shame you at the local Exxon.
Bring it, Greta. You’re full of hot air and Nordic angst, anyway.
Regardless, the money keeps flowing, the influence of the moneyed class keeps growing, and the politicians keep cashing in on a high-profile, barely disguised PR campaign—while striking a pose as present-day Mother Teresas.
Believe me, politicians across ‘Merica are taking notes. They may not know how to fix the national debt or why Social Security is circling the drain, but when it comes to keeping up with the Joneses? Oh, they’re all over it.
Or, in this case, the Gavins and the Karens.
Fresh as a Daisy—and Deductible too!
So, the next time you hear Gavin Newsom or Karen Bass talk about “economic justice” or “investing in our future,” check their behested payment disclosures.
Because nothing funds the future quite like a well-timed, daisy-fresh, tax-deductible favor.
Charlton Allen is an attorney, former chief executive officer, and chief judicial officer of the North Carolina Industrial Commission. He is the founder of the Madison Center for Law & Liberty, Inc., editor of The American Salient, and the host of the Modern Federalist podcast. X: @CharltonAllenNC
Image: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr, unaltered.
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