PRIORITIES • Fight Corruption • Policy to
Shine a Spotlight on Money and Influence
Why I believe this — and how I’ll fight for it.
Everything on these pages comes back to one question: who’s really paying — and do you get to know? Corruption grows in the dark, and the most powerful disinfectant we have is sunlight. The simple rule that if someone is spending money to influence your vote or your government, you have the right to know exactly who they are.
Right now, too often you can’t. “Dark money” groups — many of them organized as tax-exempt nonprofits — spend enormous sums to move elections and policy while hiding their donors completely. Shell groups pass money hand to hand until the trail goes cold. A billionaire, a corporation, even a foreign interest can shape what happens to your family and never once sign their name to it. Speech has a speaker. This is just anonymous power.
By law, I can’t coordinate with or control an outside group — but I can tell you exactly who’s behind the group supporting me, because there’s nothing to hide. A super PAC called New Leadership Now spent to support my campaign, funded almost entirely by one person: the wife of a former boss and a longtime friend, who has lived in Napa and believes in this fight — not a special interest looking for a payback. Her name and her giving are public. Look her up.
Now look at the money behind my opponent. The “Article One” PAC boosting him is funded largely by dark money — and by a single billionaire tied to foreign interests.
The Blue Dog PAC spending heavily in this race is worse. What doesn’t come from massive foreign groups — the same ones already funding my opponent — comes from some of the nation’s wealthiest billionaires, out to protect their own fortunes, alongside the corporate interests I’m running to take on: Big Pharma, insurance, even PG&E. All of it routed through dark-money nonprofits, so no one can trace who’s really paying, or what they expect back.
One of us is backed by a neighbor who believes in the cause. The other is backed by the very interests I’m fighting — funding him, again and again.
This is the rare fix that doesn’t take beating the other side — it just takes turning on the lights. Corruption can’t survive being seen. A government you can actually watch is one that finally has to answer to you.
Here’s what I’ll do — and why
Full disclosure of every dollar in politics. Every group that spends to influence an election or a law discloses its donors — publicly, in real time, no exceptions. If you want to spend money on our democracy, you sign your name to it.
End dark money and shut down the shell games. Close the loophole that lets “social welfare” nonprofits and shell entities pour money into politics while hiding who’s behind them. No more laundering influence through a chain of front groups until the trail vanishes.
Show us the conflicts — as they happen. As I lay out in Term Limits & Real Accountability, members of Congress should disclose their financial interests in real time, so you can see the moment a vote might make your representative richer. Information should be everywhere and easy to find. We work for you — you don’t work for us, and neither of us works for secret donors.
Give the law real teeth — because no one is above it. Here’s something both sides should agree on: the agency that’s supposed to enforce our election laws — the FEC — right now can’t. It’s been left without enough members to open a single investigation, issue a single penalty, or close a single case. The cop is off the beat. I’d fix that — a functioning, fully staffed, empowered enforcer — and back real penalties for the fraud, waste, and corruption that thrive when no one’s watching. Breaking the public’s trust for private gain should carry consequences as serious as any other crime. That’s not left or right. That’s law and order, applied to the powerful too.
The bottom line
Sunlight, disclosure, and real enforcement don’t favor one party — they favor the people over the powerful. Imagine a democracy where you can see every dollar behind every decision, where no one is above the law, and where your voice isn’t drowned out by donors you’ll never meet. That’s a government we can trust again, and the one we owe our kids. Let’s turn the lights on.
SOURCES
The FEC currently lacks the quorum required to open investigations, enforce campaign finance law, or issue rules: FEC — Notice of Lack of Quorum, April 2026
Background on the FEC’s four-vote quorum requirement and what the agency cannot do without it: Congressional Research Service — “Federal Election Commission: Membership and Policymaking Quorum,” R45160
Enforcement impact of the quorum loss: The Hill — “FEC’s lack of quorum impacts election process and enforcement”