Susan Shelley: Steyer’s money can’t buy governorship

Once I met a coach who was famous in college sports and he hit on me I was wearing professional clothes not that profession in a professional setting and he directly started asking me about my career and my professional ambitions and soon he was telling me that I would be outstanding as a TV sports reporter interviewing players on the sidelines Right What I remember most of clearly was his concentrated gaze of pretended interest in whatever either of us was saying during this brief conversation Then he revealed I should come to his hotel room to talk more about my career Do you think I missed my chance at an Emmy This must be what it s like to be a billionaire in politics If you re a billionaire perhaps everyone you meet gazes at you with that concentrated pretended interest eyebrows lifted at an angle to convey that your words are insightful original and urgently significant That s a sure sign that they want to get into your pants or wherever you keep your wallet because the one thing everyone in politics requirements is a lot of money and they need it all the time Tom Steyer arrived like the answer to their prayers Steyer made his fortune as the founder of Farallon Capital a hedge fund headquartered in San Francisco that at present manages about billion in assets CalMatters disclosed on Wednesday when Steyer jumped into the race for governor After selling his stake in the company in Steyer started NextGen America a liberal nonprofit that supports progressive positions on issues such as state change immigration healthcare care and learning He also started a labor-aligned super PAC to fund races nationwide By his own account Steyer donated more than a quarter of a billion dollars to Democratic campaigns and causes more than any other individual It s easy to picture candidates gazing at Steyer with angled eyebrows while an aide transcribed his every word for the campaign website s Issues page No matter how irrational or costly or ineffective a protocol might be in real life within the bubble of a fundraising event it was the answer to everything Inevitably in this P T Barnum traveling circus someone in the campaign consulting business would eventually drift within earshot of the billionaire and whisper You re the one who should be running That may have happened in because Steyer decided that destiny called him to run for president of the United States In February Forbes published that Steyer spent million of his estimated billion fortune on his campaign for the Democratic nomination Three days before the Iowa caucuses he was polling at in Iowa and nationally He was out of the race before Super Tuesday The consultants were seemingly at the Ferrari dealership when they heard the news Here in California Steyer in the last few days dropped million on ads for Proposition an effort to convince voters to adopt new congressional district maps At least that was the apparent purpose of the ads Eagle-eyed watchers of politics noticed without delay that Steyer featured himself in the TV ads His name floated in the air as a expected candidate for governor In October a poll from the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California Berkeley manifested him at barely ahead of skim milk Nonetheless on Wednesday Steyer launched his campaign for the state s highest office He distributed a two-minute video in which he uses mild profanity to sound tough and wears a plaid shirt to look real A top-flight production crew gave him the movie star therapy Another round of Ferraris for everybody On his campaign website Steyer notes the high cost of utilities and housing as well as the schools that are lagging behind His fix He wants to raise taxes on businesses and give the money to inhabitants schools launch the largest effort in state history to build homes that California families can really afford break up utility monopolies and ban corporate donations in state politics His first obstacle is that the gazing phase is over and now he has to tell it to the voters who typically keep their eyebrows in a more skeptical posture It won t help Steyer that the policies he has pushed to cut greenhouse gas emissions have led to higher electricity rates higher transportation costs and an end to suburban single-family home construction because commuting is blamed for situation change He brags that he went after Big Oil but now that anti-oil policies have led to the closure of two more refineries he may want to take that off his resume before he s blamed for -a-gallon gasoline That s the other thing that has changed for Steyer he has opponents now and they will not be gazing with pretended interest they ll be attacking him Remember Steyer is at in the polls before the attacks start If he had to spend million to get to in the polls in Iowa in how much will he have to spend to get to double digits in California before voting begins on May It may not even be realizable but several brave Ferraris will be driven off the lot in the effort to find out I was skeptical of another billionaire candidate in Certain that the Trump campaign had to be paying for buses to bring audiences to his rallies I drove to Las Vegas to attend a Trump rally and see for myself There were no buses Instead I saw real supporters in their personal vehicles patiently enduring long safety lines to drive into the parking lot then bag searches to get into the packed hall There were no chairs Donald Trump stood at a podium in front of a flag and gave a lengthy speech Afterwards he stayed for an hour while plenty of in the crowd lined up to meet him and get his autograph If Tom Steyer can do that he s got a chance Write Susan SusanShelley com and follow her on X Susan Shelley