friend—With the school year winding down, I thought it might be time to grade my fellow candidates on their connections to corporate PAC money.

First off, why is it important that the next Congressperson from CA-30 not accept corporate money? It’s because our democracy is not for sale. We can’t pass universal healthcare or comprehensive climate legislation when 2/3rds of Congress takes pharmaceutical money and most have accepted contributions from oil and gas companies.

My campaign is funded by $0 in corporate PAC money. And I never took any in the past. We rely on small donations from people like you—can you chip in today?

Let’s talk about my opponents.

One, currently a state senator, is rated one of the worst Dems in the legislature. It’s no wonder that he takes oodles of money from real estate interests ($128,800), police ($91,450), oil & gas ($77,450),  and health insurance ($58,600).

Several of my opponents aren’t taking corporate PAC money for this election, and I commend them for that. I hope they can keep up this courage and conviction to do the right thing for everyday people.

But what money helped propel them into elected office to begin with?

One started her career on the back of charter school money. I support fully funding public education, including free college for everyone in the USA.

Another, an LA school board member, accepted money from the New York-based “Leaders in Education” PAC. Sounds okay, right? Well…

We dug into it and found this “Leaders in Education” PAC is primarily funded by members of the Walton family. Michael Bloomberg contributes, as does Jonathan Sackler of the oxycontin Sackler empire.

Are Walmart and Purdue Pharma the voices we want speaking in our Congressperson’s ear? Unequivocally not.

Following the money matters.

That’s why I’m repeating my ask from last week—if everyone reading this email donated just $5, my campaign could compete financially with this corporate money. We already have an edge with voter name recognition, and the district is very progressive, but we need to make sure we get the word out just as well as these corporate-funded opponents.

Fighting for the people, not PACS.

- Maebe