Matt Mahan’s floundering marketing campaign for California governor has been hit with a brand new bombshell criticism accusing the San Jose mayor of illegally coordinating with a billionaire-funded PAC — and the allegations may warrant penalties as much as $5 million.
The Put up solely obtained the criticism, which accuses Mahan and an impartial expenditure committee referred to as Again to Fundamentals of violating state election regulation on coordination through the use of identical polling firm, Influence Analysis, and every paying the agency $89,500.
Allegations made to the state’s Truthful Political Practices Fee word that related sharing of “key strategists” has resulted in main fines up to now, and Mahan’s indiscretions may set off penalties within the hundreds of thousands.
Political specialists advised The Put up that Mahan’s use of the identical polling agency because the pro-Mahan committee was unprecedented, “sloppy” and “unseemly.”
Mahan, who’s polling in sixth place, has been in a free-fall this week, as billionaire donors like Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings — who clawed again $1 million from the pro-Mahan committee — are leaping ship.
Different billionaire backers to the pro-Mahan committee have included enterprise capitalist Michael Moritz, Los Angeles businessman Rick Caruso and Stripe CEO Patrick Collision.
The criticism may carry huge penalties as a result of California Again to Fundamentals has already raised and spent greater than $23 million supporting Mahan’s gubernatorial marketing campaign, which has reportedly led to him lacking greater than third of San Jose metropolis council conferences since he launched his marketing campaign in January.
If regulators decide the IE committee coordinated with the marketing campaign by way of the usage of “shared key strategists,” these expenditures may doubtlessly be reclassified as unlawful in-kind marketing campaign contributions.
“This has the potential to be one of many largest enforcement actions in FPPC historical past,” the criticism states.
The criticism marks the second time Mahan and the Again to Fundamentals committee have been accused of unlawful coordination in a proper criticism to the state’s Truthful Political Practices Commision.
David Latterman, a longtime political analyst in San Francisco who spent practically 20 years engaged on marketing campaign polling operations, referred to as the brand new allegations “unseemly” and unprecedented.
“I feel there are legs to the criticism,” Latterman mentioned.
“They’ve put themselves able the place it appears to be like like collusion,” Latterman mentioned. “You continue to must show it, however I can’t even consider a time the place I’ve heard of this occurring earlier than.”
Candidate committees are certain by extra restrictions than impartial committees that may increase limitless sums of cash. Among the many PAC’s greatest donors was Moritz, the influential former Sequoia Capital chairman, who contributed roughly $3 million mixed.
Caruso kicked in at the least $1.25 million by way of direct and affiliated donations, whereas Reddit CEO Steve Huffman gave practically $1 million, and Collison contributed roughly $1.49 million throughout a number of donations.
Marketing campaign finance filings cited within the criticism present the PAC paid Influence Analysis $89,500 in February 2026 for polling and strategic consulting companies. Mahan’s marketing campaign later paid the identical agency one other $89,500 in April.
Influence Analysis has beforehand executed polling for Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, in addition to Hillary Clinton’s marketing campaign for president.
The criticism additionally factors to marketing campaign press releases and media stories publicly figuring out Influence Analysis as Mahan’s pollster. It alleges the agency’s work concerned strategic polling, message testing and voter modeling — core marketing campaign features that may set off coordination issues beneath California regulation.
Michael Trujillo, a political guide for Antonio Villaraigosa who filed the earlier FPPC criticism in opposition to Mahan over allegedly unlawful coordination with the Again to Fundamentals committee, mentioned the overlapping polling association is “extra than simply sloppy — it’s plain dumb and silly.”
“It goes to the vanity of Silicon Valley considering they don’t must play by the principles and break all the pieces,” Trujillo mentioned.
“And that mentality doesn’t work when there are clear strains concerning the regulation.”
The submitting additional alleges the timing of a multimillion-dollar advert blitz by the PAC aligned carefully with an April inside ballot carried out for Mahan’s marketing campaign. It additionally cites a PAC memo referencing “a large voter contact effort” involving each the marketing campaign and Again to Fundamentals.
Officers for the Mahan marketing campaign and Again to Fundamentals had been unaware of the criticism when contacted by The Put up, and neither instantly responded to requests for remark. Influence Analysis additionally didn’t reply to a request for remark.
