‘No on 21’ Campaign Crosses $100M Mark in Billionaires’ Shameful Bid to Kill Prop 21

L.A. Times reports today that opponents of Prop 21 have contributed a staggering $102 million to defeat a November California ballot initiative will limit unfair rent increases and preserve affordable housing

Amount is one-third more than Big Real Estate interests spent to thwart similar 2018 measure

LOS ANGELES--()--The ‘Yes on 21’ campaign is disheartened to report today that Big Real Estate’s ‘No on Prop 21’ campaign has taken in more than $100 million in contributions to defeat California’s Proposition 21, a November ballot initiative that will limit unfair rent increases and preserve affordable housing.

On Friday (10/30), Politico reported the ‘No on 21’ campaign had received over $96 million in contributions, while earlier today (11/2), the Los Angeles Times reports the ‘No’ side’s contributions registering at over $102 million—the majority of which was contributed by billionaire real estate developers and investors, many of whom are also major Trump donors, including executives like Geoffrey Palmer and CEOs like Blackstone Group’s Stephen Schwarzman. Publicly traded real estate investment trusts such as Essex Property Trust, Equity Residential, and AvalonBay Communities are also counted among the leading contributors to the ‘No on Prop 21’ campaign.

‘No On 21’ joins the rare, and many would say, shameful, circle of $100 million campaigns.

“Over $100 million and counting from some deep-pocketed and very deceitful opponents,” mused René Christian Moya, campaign director of ‘Yes on Prop 21.’ “Sadly, Wall Street landlords are continuing to try and buy this election right up to the end. They’ve financed misleading TV ads and used a shell committee to funnel money into the ‘No on Prop 21’ campaign. All in a bald-faced effort to keep the status quo—gouging middle- and working-class California renters with sky-high rents to make billions off their backs.

Blackstone Group (led by billionaire CEO Stephen Schwarzman), billionaire landlord Geoffrey Palmer, and other corporate landlords have contributed $29.9 million to the California Business Roundtable Issues PAC, which has funneled $6.1 million to ‘No on Prop 21’: Californians to Protect Affordable Housing. The Roundtable Issues PAC has also contributed millions to California’s ‘No on Prop 15’ campaign.

Schwarzman and Palmer are also major contributors to Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.

Housing Is A Human Right (HHR) is the housing advocacy division of AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), and the leading sponsor of Proposition 21.

Proposition 21 is sponsored by Homeowners & Tenants United, with significant funding by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. To learn more, visit yeson21ca.org and housinghumanright.org.

Contacts

Ged Kenslea, AHF Communications Dir., gedk@aidshealth.org (323) 791-5526 cell

 

Release Summary

No on 21’ Campaign Crosses $100M Mark in Billionaires’ Shameful Bid to Kill Prop 21

Contacts

Ged Kenslea, AHF Communications Dir., gedk@aidshealth.org (323) 791-5526 cell