How did SF Giants owners spend their money in the 2021-22 election cycles?
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The SF Giants ownership group has always tried to stay in the background of team operations, rarely speaking publicly. However, while many of the Giants' owners are relatively faceless and avoid public scrutiny, political donations for federal elections are a matter of public record. Giants Baseball Insider has spent the past several months reviewing FEC filings to tally the donations of every Giants principal partner in the 2021 and 2022 election cycles.
Note: If an owner of the Giants (listed as a principal partner on the team's website) is not mentioned, it's because they did not have any donations recorded by the FEC.
The party affiliation of a donation is determined if either a donation was made directly to an individual candidate or a super PAC that has spent at least 80% of its funds in support of candidates with a particular party affiliation.
SF Giants owner donations: Charles B. Johnson
Number of donations: 274 (274 Pro-Republicans)
Total donated: $3,768,289.20
Charles Johnson has been one of the most prolific Republican donors for years, and that has not changed over the past two years. Johnson donated $605,800 in 2022 alone to Honor Pennsylvania, a single-candidate super PAC supporting Republican Dave McCormick's run for the U.S. Senate (McCormick lost in the primary to Mehmet Oz).
Over the past two years, Johnson has poured money into Republican groups and candidates, clearly focused on retaking a majority in the house and senate. Johnson donated $760,000 to the Congressional Leadership Fund (a super Pac aiming to elect Republicans to the House), $1,000,000 to Take Back the House 2022, and $306,500 to the National Republican Congressional Committee. He also directly donated to more than 100 Republican candidates.
Several state Republican parties and dozens of candidates throughout the country also received direct donations. Alex Shultz of SFGATE has been all over Johnson's donations, highlighting his support of far-right candidates like Herschel Walker, Ron Johnson, John Gibbs, and Ron DeSantis.
SF Giants owner donations: Arthur Rock
Number of donations: 17 (15 Pro-Democrats, 2 Non-Partisan)
Total donated: $248,400 ($238,400 Pro-Democrats, $10,000 Non-Partisan)
Arthur Rock is one of two Giants owners who were major donors to the Democratic Party. Rock primarily supported moderate and establishment candidates (e.g., Nancy Pelosi), and PACs focused on expanding charter schools (e.g., Pro Charter Schools).
Rock is an issues donor, clearly focused on expanding charter schools at the expense of public school education. Rock was the largest financial backer of the 2022 push to recall members of the San Francisco school board, donating more than $500,000 to the effort (not included in this tally because it is not a federal election).
SF Giants owner donations: Jed Walentas
Number of donations: 57 (57 Pro-Democrats)
Total donated:$104,205.90
All of Jed Walentas' donations went directly to Democratic politicians or Democratic party-focused groups. In fact, Walentas primarily donated directly to most state's Democratic Party and only gave to five candidates: Carlina Rivera, Charles Schumer, Kerry Donovan, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Catherine Cortez Masto.
Easily the most well-known, Schumer and Gillibrand have been New York's senators for more than a decade and have established themselves high up within the party's leadership.
Cortez Masto has been a senator for Nevada since 2017, but faced a strong general election challenge in 2022 against Adam Laxalt. She won reelection by less than one percentage point.
Donovan was a member of the Colorado State Senate from 2014-2018 and made a run to challenge Lauren Boebert in Colorado's third congressional district in 2022; however, she withdrew before the Democratic Primary. Adam Frisch, who won the Democratic nomination, lost to Boebert by less than 1,000 votes.
Rivera, who finished fourth in the Democratic primary election for New York's 10th congressional district, had served in the New York City Council in 2017. Rivera's largest legislative wins focused on expanding abortion rights, and regulating short-term rentals (e.g., AirBnb, VrBo, etc.). She also voted in favor of a state budget that cut education spending by $600 million while increasing the NYPD's budget by $90 million. Rivera was a member of the Democratic Socialists of America when she first ran for City Council in 2017, but is no longer a member and did not receive an endorsement from the organization in 2022. Dan Goldman, the Democrat who defeated Rivera in the primary went on to win the seat.
SF Giants owner donations: Deborah Magowan
Number of donations: 11 (11 Pro-Republicans)
Total donated: $100,000
The wife of former Giants chairman Peter Magowan, Deborah Magowan was the only owner other than Johnson to donate at least six-figures to Republican politicians and super PACs over the past two years. Magowan primarily donated to PACs or the party itself, but did make specific donations to three candidates.
Magowan donated to the campaign of Republican María Elvira Salazar, who has represented Florida's 37th congressional district since 2020. Salazar has aligned herself with more moderate factions of the party, breaking from most other members of the party to oppose the repeal of ObamaCare, vote in favor of a Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021, and vote for the Global Respect Act, which would impos sanctions on foreigners responsible for violating the human rights of LGBTQIA+ people. With that said, Salazar has voted with president Joe Biden just 39.3% of the time and has taken far-right positions on relations with Cuba and immigration.
As opposed to Walentas, Magowan donated to Laxalt's campaign in the Arizona Senate race. Laxalt co-chaired Trump's 2020 reelection campaign effort in Nevada and was a prominent election denier, accusing Democrats of election fraud without any evidence.
She also supported longtime Republican majority leader (and current speaker of the house), Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy represents California's 20th congressional district, which covers a significant portion of the southern part of the Central Valley. McCarthy was an early supporter of Trump in the 2016 Republican primary and has notably supported policies that would limit abortion access, remove environmental protections on public lands, and repeal ObamaCare. He has also faced accusations of antisemitism.
SF Giants owner donations: George Drysdale
Number of donations: 2 (2 Pro-Republicans)
Total donated: $73,000
Drysdale did not donate to any individual candidates over the past two years, instead, making a pair of max ($36,500) donations to the Republican National Committee. However, Drysdale made $45,500 in donations to Trump's reelection campaign in 2020.
SF Giants owner donations: Scott Seligman
Number of donations: 9 (5 Pro-Republicans, 1 Pro-Democrats, 3 Nonpartisan)
Total donated:$11,720 ($3,320 Pro-Republicans, $5,000 Pro-Democrats, $3,400 Nonpartisan)
Scott Seligman remains an owner of the Giants despite recently being tied to a years-long fraud scheme. Nevertheless, his political donations appear to be primarily focused on supporting Zionist candidates and organizations, particularly those staunchly opposed to Palestinian sovereignty.
Seligman made one lone $5,000 donation to the Democratic National Committee, his only donation to a clearly pro-Democratic party candidate or organization.
He donated $2,400 to The Desert Caucus a super PAC that donates to politicians of both parties who support empowering Israel. He also donated $1,000 to the United Democracy Project, which dedicates all of its spending to the Democratic Party, but donates nearly as much against Democratic candidates as it does support them. For example, the UDP spent more than $7.5 million opposing Summer Lee and Donna Edwards' bids for the U.S. House because of their support for Palestine.
Seligman gave $70 to the Republican National Committee and $750 to the Save America Pac, which is heavily associated with Donald Trump, and made donations to far-right candidates like Paul Gosar and John Gibbs.
Seligman donated directly to three individual candidates, all Republicans.
Seligman gave $1,500 to Republican Brian Marryott, who lost to Democrat Mike Levin in California's 49th congressional district. Marryott ran as a moderate Republican in a purple district.
He also donated $500 to Republican Raymond Burgess Owens, a member of the House from Utah, who co-sponsored a bill with Marjorie Taylor Greene to criminalize providing gender-affirming health care for trans youth and has fearmongered around immigration from the southern border.
Finally, Seligman gave $500 to George Devolder Santos, who claimed to be a Jewish openly gay Republican. Santos defeated Democrat Robert Zimmerman to become the representative from New York's third congressional district. Santos' campaign offered minimal policy stances beyond opposition to cash bail reform and a commitment to cutting all tax rates. Since being elected, Santos has been mired in constant controversy after reports revealed a series of lies about his life.
SF Giants owner donations: Jerry Yang
Number of donations: 2 (2 Pro-Democrats)
Total donated: $5,800
A co-founder of Yahoo, Jerry Yang only made a pair of $2,900 donations to incumbent Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut). Blumenthal is one of the wealthiest members of congress, with a net worth of over $100,000,000.
Blumenthal was the subject of a stolen valor controversy back in 2010 when he said he had served in Vietnam when he had in fact avoided the draft through several deferments and eventually joined a Marines Reserve unit in Washington. However, his tenure has been fairly nondescript as an establishment Democrat.
In 2021, Blumenthal insisted he was "a strong believer in American capitalism" after he was criticized for attending a pro-labor event because one of the organizations involved was affiliated with a Communist Party. His policy track record reinforces a standard liberal ideology. Blumenthal has voted with Joe Biden 98.5% of the time since Biden was elected president.
SF Giants owner donations: David F. Jenkins
Number of donations: 1 (Nonpartisan Super PAC)
Total donated: $5,000
Easily one of the most under-the-radar Giants owners, David Jenkins, who inherited a significant portion of his wealth from his father, founded Publix. Jenkins made a single $5,000 donation to the super PAC managed by the MLB commissioner's office. Unsurprisingly, the group has donated equally to Democratic and Republican candidates.
SF Giants owner donations: Lawrence Nibbi
Number of donations: 5 (4 Pro-Democrats, 1 Nonpartisan)
Total donated: $3,500 ($2,500 Pro-Democrats, $1,000 Nonpartisan)
Nibbi also donated $1,000 to MLB's super PAC. He donated to the Democratic National Committee and gave specific donations to Democratic California senator Alex Padilla and Ro Khana, a Democratic member of the house (representing California's 17th congressional district since 2017). Padilla has been a fairly standard establishment senator since he was first appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Khana is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and is generally considered to be left of the Democratic Party, supporting more progressive economic policy and leading a push to include more gender-inclusive language on U.S. passports.
SF Giants infielder Thairo Estrada tries to turn a double play. (2022)
Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
SF Giants owner donations: Total
Number of donations: 378 (292 Pro-Republicans, 79 Pro-Democrats, 7 Nonpartisan)
Total donated: $4,319,165.10 (3,943,359.20 Pro-Republicans, $355,905.90 Pro-Democrats, $18,700 Nonpartisan)
While Johnson made the vast majority of donations, he was far from the only Giants partner spending an exorbitant amount of money on political donations in non-presidential election years. Moreover, this tally only includes public donations to federal elections/groups. Meaning, donations to local city and state politics are not included.
Furthermore, the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling allows individuals to make unlimited "Dark Money" donations through shadow groups that are virtually impossible to trace. It's not out of the question that the billionaires who own the Giants spent millions of dollars more during the 2021-2022 election cycles.
To put this spending in context, over the past two years, Giants owners publicly donated more money to super PACs and political candidates than the SF Giants paid Joey Bart, Thairo Estrada, Camilo Doval, David Villar, and Tyler Rogers combined. On the heels of the organization's inability to land a star player they coveted this offseason, players and fans alike have even more reason to be frustrated by ownerships' aggressive spending in politics.
