The biggest spender in California's election? It's not who you think
When it comes to big spenders on California propositions, the usual suspects are oil companies, the California Teachers Association and the Chamber of Commerce.
But to find the biggest spender in the latest election, you have to go to a trailer at the Stanford linear accelerator, where a geeky guy with a gaptoothed smile and bow tie is studying experimental physics.
Meet Charles T. Munger Jr., a Stanford University physicist and the son of Warren Buffett's billionaire investment partner. Munger just poured $12.6 million of his inherited wealth -- or 10 percent of his net worth -- into redistricting reform, a less-than-glamorous cause that nonetheless packs the seismic power of the Big One when it comes to California politics.
Munger's multimillion-dollar contribution amounts to more than Cisco Systems, tobacco giant Philip Morris, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and Chevron spent on the election combined. And it paid off in a landslide -- much to his gratification -- with 61 percent voter support for Proposition 20, the measure he backed.
"You need to go into the world and do something that's nee
