California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom is facing mockery after it was revealed that his in-laws donated to the campaign of his political adversary, Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.
Fox News first reported that the parents of the California governor’s wife, Kenneth F Siebel Jr and Judith A Siebel, had contributed $5,000 to the Friends of Ron DeSantis PAC.
Campaign records show that the donation, made on 6 April 2022, was made through the Siebel Family Revocable Trust.
Conservative commentators and politicians were quick to jump on apparent political division within the Newsoms’ house, with right-wing radio host Clay Travis summing his thoughts up succinctly: “This is fantastic”.
“I think it’s safe to say that Thanksgiving is gonna be awkward this year. Gavin’s in-laws have good taste. Their daughter, not so much,” said Fox News political pundit Tomi Lahren.
This also isn’t the first occasion that the Democrat’s in-laws have made contributions to the Republican party.
Mr Newsom’s father-in-law, a wealthy San Francisco investment manager, has made contributions to national groups, such as the Republican National Committee. And campaign finance reports show that he has even sought out specific conservatives from across the country to pad their coffers, including Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson and Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton.
Though the donation was made months ago, the news of the family crossing the political aisle from their son-in-law arrives one week after the California governor pledged to make Mr DeSantis – who is up for reelection – a “one term governor”.
Last week, the Democrat, who is himself up for re-election, tweeted that he was pledging $100,000 to Mr DeSantis’s Democratic rival in the Florida gubernatorial race, Charlie Christ.
“I don’t like bullies,” said Mr Newsom when asked about the donation at a campaign event in Los Angeles last week, CNN reported. The governor was referring to how the Florida lawmaker had verbally abused Dr Anthony Fauci while at a rally earlier in the week, saying that the country’s top infectious disease expert was an “elf” and that someone should “chuck him across the Potomac.”
Both lawmakers are slated as potential presidential picks for the.ir respective parties in 2024 and beyond, and potentially as a knock-on effect of that speculation, have frequently been at each other’s throats in attempts to raise their respective national profiles.
In July, the California Democrat released a TV ad for his reelection campaign where instead of attacking his own gubernatorial Republican candidate, he called out Mr DeSantis.
“I urge all of you living in Florida to join the fight. Or join us in California, where we still believe in freedom — freedom of speech, freedom to choose, freedom from hate and the freedom to love," Mr Newsom said in the 30 second ad, which had screenshots of headlines that featured Mr DeSantis’s name prominently alongside the staunchly conservative policies he’s passed in recent months.
Mr Newsom began to ascend as a rising star in his political party after he beat back a GOP-led effort to recall him last year.
Both politicians are expected to handily cruise into reelection this November and neither has announced any intention for running as a presidential candidate on their respective political party’s ticket.
