Gavin Newsom criticized for soliciting donations to victims of LA wildfire through his super PAC

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has sparked outrage and controversy for using his super PAC to solicit donations for victims of the deadly and horrific Los Angeles area wildfires. The super PAC pushes users to go to and add their personal information to the Democratic fundraising site, ActBlue. 

Newsom posted a link on X, formerly Twitter, to californiafirefacts.com, a website set up by his campaign committee, in response to what he says is misinformation about the wildfires. 

The website urges users to donate money to the California Fire Foundation. It then “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,” according to the New York Post. 

“Your donation will go directly towards supporting firefighters and the communities they serve, including direct financial support to impacted residents,” the site says. 

People who donate through Newsom’s fundraising appeal will automatically start receiving text messages from his super PAC, assuming they provide their phone numbers. The suggestion is that he is promoting his super PAC while soliciting donations for victims of the wildfires and first responders. 

“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.

But some observers, using Community Notes, have noted that ActBlue takes a portion of all donations as a processing fee. They claim to “charge a flat rate of 3.95% on each donation” to “cover the processing cost.” 

ActBlue has been investigated by congressional Republicans for its lax security measures, and many of the transactions on ActBlue have been flagged as potentially suspicious or fraudulent.