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A Palo Alto scientist's $10M plan to kill Calif. redistricting
FILE: Charles Munger Jr., chairman of the Santa Clara County Republican Party, center, talks with Assemblyman Brian Jones, R-Santee, right, at the California Republican Party convention in Sacramento, Calif., Sunday, March 3, 2013.
An effort to oppose Gov. Gavin Newsom’s redistricting ballot measure is ramping up, and a seemingly unlikely figure has emerged as the top fundraiser.
Charles Munger Jr., a Palo Alto scientist and the heir of the former vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, one of Warren Buffett’s longtime business partners, is back in politics after being incognito for almost a decade.
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Munger, a massive Republican Party donor in the past, has mostly laid low since 2016. Yet according to financial filings posted on the California secretary of state’s website, Munger has already dumped $10 million into the campaign committee for Protect Voters First, the group founded by Munger to oppose Newsom’s redistricting proposal.
“Charles Munger passed a number of meaningful reforms in California and has said that he will vigorously defend them. He believes that citizens should draw lines, not politicians. He opposes this attempt to take that right away,” Amy Thoma Tan, a spokesperson for Protect Voters First, wrote in an email to SFGATE.
Previous reports say Munger plans to contribute $20 million more, but Tan did not confirm that figure.
Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at Salesforce Tower on Aug. 22, 2025, in San Francisco.
Newsom, after backing from the Legislature, officially announced last week that Proposition 50 will be on the Nov. 4 ballot. He first floated the redistricting idea in mid-July, which he billed as fighting back against Republican redistricting plans in Texas, Florida and Missouri. It soon escalated to a full-fledged proposal to draft a new version of the congressional map for California voters to decide on.
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The proposed map, which was released to the public Aug. 18, was carved out in such a way that would spread out Republican voters........
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