(2021-08-25) Gavin Newsoms Recall Election Divides Silicon Valleys Elite

Gavin Newsom's Recall Election Divides Silicon Valley’s Elite. Silicon Valley is a famously left-leaning place. Technologists have been known to spend their riches advancing gender equality or eradicating homelessness, occasionally even proposing higher taxes on the very wealthy—that is, themselves. These generous allowances appeared most recently in the form of support for California governor Gavin Newsom, who is currently facing a recall in a September special election. Not surprisingly, Newsom has received donations from an elite circle of tech luminaries

(but) a small but vocal group of technocrats are trying to oust Newsom and manifest a different kind of California. Some, like Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, are well-known Republicans.

but others have supported more progressive politics:

The venture capitalist and former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya recently described California as an “inhospitable culture for innovation,”

The venture capitalist David Sacks, who supported Newsom in his 2018 bid, has also given money to Rescue California

In 2017, researchers at Stanford studied the political attitudes of the tech elite and found them “completely different from any other group.” Neil Malhotra, who led the research... While they do lean left in many ways, Malhotra says technocrats are not liberal, but rather “liberal-tarian.”