I voted early to avoid the rush on Election Day, Nov. 2 by dropping off my ballot in a Drop Box. The next day I got an email from the Secretary of State telling me that my ballot had been received. Easy!
However ... here's my concern: If you want a masterclass in how hyper-concentrated wealth can casually hijack a democratic system, look no further than California’s November ballot.
I'm deeply troubled by the huge amount of money being spent to defeat Proposition 40, the Billionaires' tax. According to media reports, the campaign against the wealth tax has rapidly escalated into one of the most expensive ballot initiative fights in California history.
The polls appear to indicate that the $333 million being spent by the 70-o-so billionaires against the measure has succeeded in confusing enough of the electorate that the proposition will probably be defeated Tuesday.
FYI: Consult official election materials and California voter guides for a comprehensive overview of the upcoming ballot measures, polling numbers, and constitutional amendments.
Designed by progressive advocates to raise an estimated $100 billion to backfill Donald Trump's cuts to healthcare, education, and food assistance, the measure has instead triggered a multi-million dollar defensive playbook by the state's ultra-rich.
Seeing how successful the uber-rich have influenced the Donald Trump administration, California's billionaires are following that federal blueprint. Here is exactly how billionaire money is reshaping the race, flipping the polls, and setting a dangerous blueprint for the future of direct democracy.
1. The raw math of soft power
A political action committee named Building a Better California has raised over $333 million to defeat the measure. The donor list reads like a Silicon Valley directory: Google co-founder Sergey Brin personally dropped more than $100 million. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, venture capitalist John Doerr, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison, and crypto executive Chris Larsen have followed suit with massive checks. Separately,cPaypal CEO Peter Thiel poured roughly $100 million into a parallel opposition committee led by the California Business Roundtable.
This isn't just about throwing money at a problem; it works. Over the summer, the tax measure enjoyed a slim majority. When you have the capital to systematically re-engineer public sentiment in a matter of weeks, "one person, one vote" starts to feel like a polite fiction.
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2. The weaponization of "counter-propositions"
Talk about gaming the game: The real genius — and danger — of the billionaire strategy isn’t the attack ads. It’s how they are using their wealth to alter the actual structure of the ballot.
This triggers a deep glitch in California law: if multiple conflicting propositions pass, the one with the highest number of "yes" votes supersedes the others.
By bankrolling these companion measures, wealthy donors have built a multi-layered legal defense web. Even if regular voters approve the wealth tax, it can be legally nullified by a higher vote count on alternative propositions.
It’s an asymmetric game where billionaires can buy extra slots on the wheel to guarantee the house always wins.
3. Divide, confuse and fracture allies
If you want to win a political war, you don't just attack your enemy — you break their alliances.
While the wealth tax is strongly championed by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and Senator Bernie Sanders, the opposition’s bottomless war chest has successfully fractured the state's traditional progressive coalition. Established progressive-leaning organizations like Planned Parenthood, the California Teachers Association, and the California Medical Association have publicly broken ranks to oppose the wealth tax.
They argue that the measure's wording is ambiguous, lacks a sustainable long-term funding mechanism, and contains loopholes that could inadvertently allow future legislatures to target retirement accounts.
By funding the research, polling, and messaging necessary to amplify these policy flaws, billionaire-backed campaigns have effectively turned progressive allies against one another, neutralizing the grassroots power that usually drives these initiatives.
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| Will billionaires thwart Prop. 40, a measure meant to fund healthcare and education. |
View from the Edge
Opponents of the wealth tax will tell you this is a necessary defense of California’s economic competitiveness — a justified exercise of political speech to stop a flawed policy. But step back and look at the macro picture. This fight has exposes an alarming reality: when a tiny fraction of the population possesses more capital than entire state budgets, the ballot initiative process ceases to be a tool for grassroots democracy.Instead, it becomes a testing ground for a disturbing new blueprint. If billionaires can routinely outspend, out-maneuver, and out-organize the voting public to rewrite the rules of engagement, direct democracy stops being a mechanism of the people. It transforms into a corporate franchise where consent is manufactured, policy is bought, and the future of self-governance is effectively privatized.
But for the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, this isn't just another political fight — it represents a profound internal fracture. The financial warfare over Prop. 40 exposes a widening chasm between working-class AAPI immigrant families who rely on the social safety net and the elite class of Silicon Valley tech executives reshaping the political landscape.
What's really scary is that the conservative-leaning 250-or-so billionaires living in the state may just be flexing their muscle. If successful in defeating or neutering Prop. 40, they likely will become more involved in politics in "guiding" California laws and policies to their liking.
“People with wealth and extreme wealth are getting much more brazen than they used to be,” said millionaire and Prop 40 supporter Scott Ellis, in an interview with Politico. “These people have tremendous resources. They have an incredible range of choices to make, including choosing to oppose this kind of ballot measure.”
“People with wealth and extreme wealth are getting much more brazen than they used to be,” said millionaire and Prop 40 supporter Scott Ellis, in an interview with Politico. “These people have tremendous resources. They have an incredible range of choices to make, including choosing to oppose this kind of ballot measure.”
This concentration of wealth creates a stark paradox within the Asian American community. While media narratives often focus on the staggering success of South Asian and East Asian tech entrepreneurs, the reality on the ground is that the vast majority of working-class AANHPI families — particularly Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander, and newly arrived immigrants — are disproportionately vulnerable to the very cuts in healthcare and language-accessible public services that Prop 40 aims to fund.
Today it’s a wealth tax in California; tomorrow, it’s the wholesale capture of every lever of public policy. When the highest bidder gets to lock the doors behind them, the rest of us are left watching from the sidelines — waiting to see if democracy survives the auction.
Dropping a ballot in a drop box feels easy, but it won't matter much if the ballot box itself has already been stuffed and bought.
EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X, BlueSky or at the blog Views From the Edge. If you find this perspective interesting, feel free to repost.
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