Thirty companies that conduct business with the state of California have contributed $1.6 million to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s gubernatorial campaigns while receiving more than $5 billion in contracts with the state government, according to a nonprofit watchdog.
The 30 firms—including Big Tech giants, some of the best-known banks in the United States, a select group of public utilities, and five health care titans—are the biggest winners among the more than 201,000 vendors that in 2021 received a total of $87.2 billion in payments from the state government headed by Newsom since 2019.
Newsom was seen at the White House on July 13, an appearance that prompted speculation among political observers that he could be preparing to challenge President Joe Biden for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination. Biden was in Israel at the time….