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\n Matt Mahan wants money to burn.
\n Photo: Casey Flanigan\/Sipa USA\/AP Photo\n <\/p>\n
Finding new ways to raise money for political campaigns is a big cottage industry, particularly in California with its 14 expensive media markets<\/a>. Now a novel wrinkle is being deployed by gubernatorial candidate and San Jose mayor Matt Mahan<\/a>, as the New York Times explains<\/a>:<\/p>\n Two months ago, Silicon Valley could not have been more agog about Matt Mahan, the moderate Democrat who had\u00a0just entered the California governor\u2019s race<\/a>\u00a0as a tech industry ally opposed to a billionaires\u2019 tax \u2026<\/p>\n Mr. Mahan quickly raised millions, including contributions from Sergey Brin, the Google co-founder. But he has struggled to gain traction among voters. Now, with the June primary fast approaching, Mr. Mahan\u2019s supporters have concocted a rather unusual campaign-finance strategy.<\/p>\n The pitch: Help us raise $35 million by April 17, and you\u2019ll get your money back if we fall short.<\/p>\n No, donors aren\u2019t being promised a win or a refund. But they will get their money back if Mahan doesn\u2019t raise enough money to become viable in the home stretch before mail ballots start being cast in early May (the end of the all-by-mail primary is June 3, the date by which those ballots must be postmarked). The conditional nature of these donations, moreover, means they will be anonymous until such time as Team Mahan hits the target and the money is transferred into an official campaign account. It provides a nice hedging device for big-money folk nervous about the fragile shape of the ten-candidate field<\/a> that is vying for two general-election slots. And the cup-rattling is off to a pretty good start, says the Times:<\/p>\n The campaign is organized by David Crane, an influential California political fixer whose advocacy group, Govern for California, is popular among tech executives. Mr. Crane has told people in recent days that the group\u2019s \u201cescrow\u201d account has $13.5 million so far with $5 million more in the pipeline, according to communications The Times reviewed. Donors pitching it include Michael Moritz, a billionaire venture capitalist and one of Mr. Mahan\u2019s biggest supporters, and Blake Byers, a tech executive and investor.<\/p>\n Mahan\u2019s money hustlers are his campaign\u2019s strength and also one of his weaknesses. California progressives are intensely suspicious of the Silicon Valley bros who have been moving rapidly to the right in the last few years. Some have joined hands with Donald Trump<\/a> and others have gravitated to \u201cAbundance\u201d Democrats<\/a>, like Mahan, who have little tolerance for his party\u2019s interest-and-constituency-group \u201cbase\u201d and its policy preferences. If Mahan\u2019s campaign did take off, it might stimulate a consolidation of support behind one of the more progressive candidates (probably Eric Swalwell, Katie Porter, or Tom Steyer). That\u2019s particularly true now that Trump\u2019s endorsement of Republican Steve Hilton<\/a> has likely limited the number of Democratic participants in the general election to one.<\/p>\n For the moment, any Mahan surge is hypothetical. His late entry into the race at the end of January means he wasn\u2019t even being included in early polls. The one public poll where he does appear, a March 15 survey from Berkeley IGS<\/a>, showed him tied for seventh place at 4 percent. Yes, he needs money to catch up, but he also needs a compelling message that goes beyond \u201clefties hate me!\u201d Said lefties would undoubtedly shrug and support Mahan if he is in a general election with Hilton. But they have plenty of other options \u2014 at least one of whom, Steyer, has more money to burn than Mahan can ever raise \u2014 before it comes to that.<\/p>\n