OPINION:
California Gov. Gavin Newsom likes conducting state business through nonprofits run by his allies.
The latest grift is $20 million in taxpayer funding given to Baby2Baby to provide 400 free diapers per newborn to 100,000 babies upon discharge at participating hospitals this summer. That works out to 50 cents per diaper. Going to any store and making the purchase directly is about three times cheaper, working out to roughly 16 cents per diaper.
So why not just provide coupons, vouchers or gift cards for free diapers to new mothers to buy at Costco, Target or Walmart? Why use $7.4 million in taxpayers’ cash from the 2025-2026 budget and an additional $12.5 million for the next year, as the state faces a chronic, multibillion-dollar structural budget deficit estimated at around $35 billion annually?
Well, Democrats like to spend other people’s money through a network of nonprofits, where funds can be disappeared, mingled or diverted, ultimately feeding back into the Democratic political machine.
The Baby2Baby deal stinks to high heaven.
Baby2Baby is co-run by Kelly Sawyer Patricof, the wife of Hollywood producer Jamie Patricof, one of the top donors and campaign bundlers for Democrats in the Golden State.
The other co-CEO of Baby2Baby, Norah Weinstein, sits on the board of California Partners Project, another nonprofit co-founded by Mr. Newsom’s wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, to increase women’s representation in leadership. California Partners Project helped facilitate the partnership between the state of California and Baby2Baby.
The New York Post detailed in March how Mr. Newsom has helped funnel more than $4.4 million in donations from organizations and powerful figures into his wife’s California Partners Project. Many of the donors have “benefited from Newsom’s seven years in office,” the Post analyzed.
Mrs. Newsom’s other nonprofit, the Representation Project, paid her more than $1.8 million from 2011 to 2024, and another $2.1 million went to her for-profit Girls Club Entertainment production company.
The “gender identity” and “gender justice” films produced by Girls Club Entertainment are then licensed to California public schools through the Representation Project, netting Mrs. Newsom a cool $1.5 million in license fees since 2012, according to the watchdog group Open the Books.
Baby2Baby’s 2024 IRS Form 990 return shows an operation flush with cash, reporting total assets of $75 million. The charity has received roughly 87% of its funding from the public.
Its offices cost $4 million a year to operate, with more than $400,000 spent on conferences, travel and “miscellaneous” expenses. The charity employs 14 executives, each earning more than $100,000 annually.
Baby2Baby manufactures its own (more costly) diapers in Mexico, so taxpayer funds are going to higher-cost imports rather than a fully domestic production.
“Why is it three times more expensive for Gavin Newsom to send diapers to 100,000 babies than just leaving the money in the bank accounts of the parents in the first place?” Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton asked in a video he posted on social media. “Because it’s going to some total bull—— nonprofit, which the cronies of his are going to make money, and that is wrong with California. Instead of just cutting taxes so you can afford diapers and sending it out in this ridiculous bureaucratic scheme.”
Mr. Hilton’s campaign estimates that, within the past five years, California has mismanaged $425 billion in taxpayer money ($22,000 per taxpayer).
“That’s how much the California Democrat machine stole from you,” Mr. Hilton wrote on social media. “$425 billion in fraud, waste and abuse over five years. You should be enraged by this. Time for another taxpayer revolt. We will kick them out this year.”
Is it possible Californians will wake up and elect a fiscally responsible governor?
According to the RealClearPolitics average, Mr. Hilton has a 2.5-percentage-point advantage over his nearest competitor, Democrat Tom Steyer. The top two vote-getters on June 2 will advance to the general election.
One can only hope that Mr. Hilton’s message is breaking through and Golden State voters can see clearly the Democratic grift, which benefits only them and their friends and leaves the average Californian behind.
• Kelly Sadler is the commentary editor at The Washington Times.
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