There’s money to be made in California this spring, no startup pitch or buzzy screenplay required. Instead, signatures are one of the state’s most coveted commodities: campaigns are paying $15 apiece to those willing to collect them.

Petition distributors can thank Sergey Brin for this pay bump. In an effort to kill California’s proposed billionaire tax, the Google co-founder and other local tycoons are funding a political group that has hiked the going rate for signatures collected in support of countermeasures. In all, foes of the wealth tax are expected to spend $75m in their attempt to quash the proposal. Brin himself has donated $45m to the cause – a sum that suggests he just might be able to afford a higher tax bill.

Billionaires offering bounties for signatures is just the latest indignity in a political system long defined by the machinations of the wealthy. With more than $125m poured into advertising, Texas’s recent Senate election was the most expensive primary race ever. In 2024, billionaires contributed 19% of all reported donations to federal elections, while Aipac and an associated Super Pac spent nearly $100m. That’s also how much one AI industry group plans to shell out during this year’s midterms. The political funding arms race is deepening. And all that most Americans can afford to bring to the fight is one vote.

The crisis has escalated since 2010, when the supreme court’s Citizens United decision shredded limits on independent........

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