Current Congressman
Mike Thompson
has taken more money from PG&E
than any member of Congress…
in history.
$97,871
Across nearly three decades
and 15 consecutive election cycles…
Including in the months after PG&E's equipment killed 44 people in his own district…
and 43 days after the company pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter.
No member of Congress has taken more money from PG&E than Mike Thompson.
Since 1998, Thompson's campaigns have accepted $97,871 from the PG&E Corporation PAC. That is more than any of the 830 federal candidates PG&E has ever given to, and he has taken it in every single election cycle of his career, including the cycles after PG&E's equipment killed his own constituents in the 2017 Wine Country fires and after the company pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter for the Camp Fire.
The numbers below come from Thompson's own itemized FEC reports. The disasters, convictions, and bankruptcy are matters of public record.
By the numbers
The timeline: disasters, convictions, and checks
Over sixteen years, PG&E killed 92 people, was convicted of 90 felonies, and went bankrupt. Thompson took the company's money before, during, and after each of those events. Highlighted rows are PG&E's record. Plain rows are Thompson's checks.
| Date | What happened | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Sept 9, 2010 | PG&E's gas pipeline explodes in San Bruno. Eight people are killed, 38 injured, and 108 homes destroyed. Federal investigators later find PG&E kept flawed records and skipped required inspections for years. | — |
| Aug 9, 2016 | PG&E is convicted on six federal felony counts for pipeline safety violations and for obstructing the federal investigation into the explosion. | — |
| 2017 | Thompson takes three PG&E checks (Feb 10, June 26, July 25). | $5,500 |
| Oct 8–9, 2017 | PG&E equipment ignites the Wine Country fires across Napa and Sonoma, in Thompson's own district. Forty-four people are killed and thousands of homes destroyed. CAL FIRE later traces multiple fires to PG&E power lines. | — |
| Mar 22, 2018 | Five months after his constituents died, Thompson takes another PG&E check. | $1,500 |
| June 26, 2018 | Three months later, another. | $3,000 |
| Nov 8, 2018 | The Camp Fire. A PG&E transmission line that the company had flagged internally as overdue for repair destroys the town of Paradise. Eighty-five people are killed. It is the deadliest wildfire in California history. | — |
| Jan 29, 2019 | PG&E files for bankruptcy, citing $30 billion in wildfire liability. Ratepayers and fire victims are left to absorb the cost. | — |
| Apr 4, 2019 | Ten weeks into the bankruptcy, Thompson takes PG&E money. | $5,000 |
| June 16, 2020 | PG&E pleads guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter, one for each Camp Fire death the company was charged with. A federal judge calls the company a repeat offender on criminal probation. | — |
| July 29, 2020 | Forty-three days after the guilty plea, Thompson takes PG&E money. | $5,000 |
| 2021 | Thompson takes two more PG&E checks (Mar 11, Apr 12). | $5,000 |
| July 2021 | The Dixie Fire, the second-largest in California history, is traced to PG&E equipment. Nearly a million acres burn while PG&E remains on federal criminal probation. | — |
| June 30, 2022 | Eleven months after Dixie, Thompson takes PG&E money. | $4,999 |
| 2023–24 | Thompson takes four more PG&E checks across the cycle. | $9,646 |
| 2025 | Thompson takes two more PG&E checks (Mar 13, May 1). | $4,874 |
| July 28, 2026 | PG&E asks the California Public Utilities Commission to raise ratepayer bills to fund a $26.6 million shareholder bonus. Thompson has taken $4,874 from PG&E this cycle. | — |
Contribution amounts and dates are taken from Mike Thompson's itemized receipts as filed with the Federal Election Commission. Rankings are based on a review of every PG&E Corporation PAC contribution to a federal candidate on record with the FEC. Casualty figures, convictions, and bankruptcy details are from federal court records, CAL FIRE, the National Transportation Safety Board, and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California.