Sergei Brin once called government a “giant bonfire of partisanship” and spent years on the fringes of politics. But in recent months, the Google co-founder has become a political force in California, investing unprecedented sums in the fight against a proposed tax on billionaires.
Just this year, Strand spent about 40 times what he put into politics over the previous two decades, making him the largest individual donor to a campaign in California history.
His roughly $100 million effort to defeat Proposition 40, a one-time 5 percent tax on billionaires’ assets, is the centerpiece of a new political operation that goes well beyond that measure. Directed by Strand and funded by some of California’s wealthiest residents, the group also supports two initiatives to invalidate the tax even if voters approve it. He earmarked $17 million for separate ballot measures to boost housing construction and speed up environmental assessments.
His anti-wealth tax spending undermines one of the top priorities of progressive Democrats nationally – what. Bernie Sanders called the most important ballot measure in America. And if he continues the operation he launched earlier this year, spending heavily in the state’s costly election wars, he could wield outsized influence over California politics for years to come.
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