The complaint accuses Mahan and billionaire PAC donors Michael Moritz and Rick Caruso, among others, of flouting state laws that prohibit \u201cindependent expenditure\u201d committees, also known as PACs, from coordinating with candidates.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Moritz<\/a> is a San Francisco retired venture capitalist heavily involved in Democratic political giving at the local, state and federal levels who in 2021 founded the San Francisco Standard. Caruso is a Los Angeles real estate magnate who has donated to both Republicans and Democrats<\/a> and ran unsuccessfully for Los Angeles mayor in 2022.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Independent expenditure committees can take in and spend unlimited sums from donors, but cannot work directly with candidates, who are bound by strict donation limits ($78,400<\/a> for the primary and general elections, combined).\u00a0<\/p>\n The complaint alleges that Mahan\u2019s campaign and the independent expenditure committee amassing millions of dollars to back him, which is fueled by Silicon Valley money and called California Back to Basics<\/a>, shared information about campaign timing and strategy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The pro-Mahan PAC Back to Basics has accumulated more than $15 million as of April 21; Secretary of State filings<\/a> indicate that Moritz has given $1 million and Caruso $1.5 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n Messages for Caruso and Moritz were not immediately returned.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a desperate anonymous attack from someone who knows that when voters hear Mayor Matt\u2019s message, it resonates,\u201d said Tasha Dean, Mahan\u2019s campaign spokesperson. \u201cWe\u2019re going to keep focusing on what matters to Californians \u2014 making sure people can afford to live in the state we all love.\u201d<\/p>\n The FPPC has not yet determined if it will investigate the complaint, and will move ahead or drop the matter after gathering material over the next couple of weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n While the complaint was filed anonymously, the man who filed it was Raul Claros, the founder of the nonprofit California Rising <\/a>and Los Angeles city council candidate<\/a>. He said the \u201cpowerhouse team\u201d behind Mahan \u201cshould know better. It\u2019s not like they made a clerical mistake.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAs a result of Mahan\u2019s brazen communications with Caruso, Moritz and others,\u201d reads the complaint, \u201cthe expenditures made by the independent expenditure committee are not and never were independent.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Mission Local reviewed screenshots of Zoom calls and emails<\/a> sent to the FPPC as \u201csupporting documents.\u201d Those images indicate that Moritz and Caruso, two top donors to California Back to Basics, participated with Mahan in an April 6 Zoom fundraising call.\u00a0<\/p>\n The complaint alleges that campaign strategy was discussed during this meeting, and that Mahan\u2019s consultant\u2019s strategy slides were screen-shared.\u00a0<\/p>\n On the same day that Caruso, Moritz and others participated in Mahan\u2019s April 6 Zoom, the complaint alleges that Back to Basics sent a \u201cState of the Race\u201d memo <\/a>to its donors.\u00a0<\/p>\n Under the heading \u201cAdvertising Blitz\u201d it stated \u201cTiming is everything in this business and the Mahan campaign has an opportunity for a massive voter contact effort between their organization and Back to Basics. With less than 2 months to go until Election Day, we would expect the Mahan campaign to roll out its paid media program within the week. On our end, Back to Basics just placed another 7-figure buy in the Los Angeles media market \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n The knowledge of where the PAC was buying ads and how much it was spending would be of strategic interest to the campaign.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n At Mission Local\u2019s behest, the complaint and its supporting documents were reviewed by a number of lawyers, consultants and other campaign professionals.\u00a0<\/p>\n While several agreed that the alleged commingling of strategic information among donors with a foot in both the campaign and PAC camps was \u201ca bad look,\u201d the burden of proving illegal coordination would be higher.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHaving the same people in the PAC and on the candidate committee is not, in and of itself, enough to cross the line,\u201d said Jessica Levinson, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe place where you get closest to a potential question of coordination is the fact you have donors who were on calls where they received information about communications and spending from one committee, and they were on calls with the other committee,\u201d she continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n But \u201cpassive receipt of information is not enough.\u201d For the law to be contravened, Levinson said, it is not sufficient that this information was passed between the committees. Rather, it would have to be used to inform spending and strategy decisions.\u00a0If the FPPC opts to investigate the matter, such issues would presumably be probed. <\/p>\n The complaint also named David Crane, a Stanford University lecturer and political operative who is the president of Govern for California<\/a>, a nonprofit founded by Crane to counter \u201cspecial interest politics.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The group, which has put $1.5 million behind the pro-Mahan PAC, has been investigated by the state for purportedly violating campaign finance laws; in San Francisco, it engaged in the eyebrow-raising practice of giving multiple $500 donations \u2014 the city\u2019s campaign donation limit \u2014 to the same candidates through its different state chapters.<\/p>\n Emails sent to Govern for California have not been immediately returned.\u00a0<\/p>\n Back to Basics is spending heavily to make Mahan, the favorite son of Silicon Valley, a household name and viable candidate. The race to become California governor blew open this month when frontrunner Rep. Eric Swalwell bowed out<\/a> after several staffers came forward with allegations of sexual assault<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/mahan-moritz-853x640.jpg\")
In an image submitted to the state as \u2018supporting documents\u2019 in an ethics case, gubernatorial candidate Matt Mahan is seen leading an April 6 fundraising call with Michael Moritz is listed as a participant. In the image below, Moritz, a major donor to the pro-Mahan independent expenditure committee, is seen in its April 10 \u2018donor call.\u2019 <\/p>\n