California’s race for governor took a bizarro turn Friday when progressive supporters of Tom Steyer, the race’s lone billionaire, ripped San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan for being supported by too many billionaires, even as one Steyer supporter said he didn’t think “we should have billionaires.”
Friday’s press event featuring two San Jose state legislators was an elevation of Steyer’s burgeoning it-takes-a billionaire-to-fight-one strategy that is at the core of his campaign.
A conga line of wealthy tech titans is supporting Mahan, campaign finance documents show, including Google co-founder Sergey Brin, the third-richest person in the world. Others tech industry donors to Mahan include Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan; Sean Parker collaborator Joe Green, who co-founded the political- and community-building sites NationBuilder and Causes (which Mahan later led) and the pro-immigration Fwd.us with Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg; Cruise Automation co-founder Kyle Vogt; venture capitalist Brian Singerman; Los Angeles developer Rick Caruso, who was also mulling a run for governor; GitHub co-founder Chris Wainsrath; former Y Combinator partner Michael Seibel; and venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale…