The Super PAC created for Ro Khanna, Californians for Innovation (CFI) reported on Friday spending $117,775 opposing Democratic Congressman Mike Honda (CA-17). Having raised $345,000 in the last quarter (7/1/16 – 9/30/16) this leaves CFI with at least $230,000 left to spend through Election Day. They spent $50,000 on polling with the remaining $67,775 spent on direct mailers.
Former Enron Hedge Fund manager, John Arnold and wife Laura account for $250,000 of CFI’s funding with the remaining $95,000 coming from 8 others, mostly Venture Capitalist/investor types. Not surprising for a campaign rated #1 Congressional candidate with Wall Street type funders by Center for Responsive Politics (Open Secrets). Last election the Arnolds of Texas funded CFI with $350,000, 38% of CFI’s total receipts. Combined with their maxed out contributions to the Khanna Campaigns, in the last 2-1/2 years they’ve invested over $620,000 in candidate Khanna.
Like many of Khanna’s Wall Street type funders the Arnolds are pro-Charter school. Khanna himself admitted in an exclusive interview with the Alt-Right website, Breitbart that he disagreed with Democrats on Charter schools. And according to Khanna he met with the Arnolds and discussed policy issues during the previous election.
Still unknown is who was behind the $40,000 of dark money funneled through OO Investments LLC in the 2014 election. The San Francisco firm is listed as a California-Foreign LLC and was registered in Delaware by The Corporation Trust Company. Offering “registered agent services” the firm’s small single-story office is the legal address of over 285,000 business entities looking to avoid taxes and disclosure.
Californians for Innovation (FEC.gov)
It was obvious when the 2015 year-end report showed a single $1 contribution that CFI was preparing for a return appearance. And just a few months later they began paying licensing fees for access to NGP VAN’s database. Last election CFI spent nearly one million trying to defeat Congressman Honda, and I would expect the airwaves and mailboxes of District 17 to again overflow with Khanna SuperPAC money.
The return of Khanna’s Super PAC and its Wall Street type funders reinforce the points made in Rep. Honda’s most recent commercial.
That is me and my little one at the beginning of the commercial. Read her blog on the experience: My Commercial Shoot with Rep. Mike Honda, Judy Rickard and Karin Bogliolo.
