We’ve chronicled the failure of California Trailblazers. Compare that to Travis Allen’s ready-made army of 25,000 donors.

#1 California Trailblazers since its’ founding in 2011 has only sent $142,365 to candidates. #2 California Trailblazers has paid out $1,250,609 to Jessica Patterson in total. It is fairly easy to see that well over $1,000,000 of that was compensation beyond reimbursements for hosting conferences in places like the Ritz-Carlton Lake Tahoe. (lest Patterson’s crew decide to split hairs over the definitions of all the checks listed on the reports) #3 Other Consultants have been paid out over $1,000,000 since 2011 as well. These include $400K to Jeff Randle (a stone-cold never-trumper, Pete Wilson’s Hatchet Man and godfather of Meg Whitman’s $144MM disaster in 2010), $230K+ to Molly Parnell (a former employee of the CAGOP), $180K+ to Aaron McLear (of Arnold fame and another stone-cold never-trumper) and others. #4 While Patterson and others promoting her are touting fundraising as a top qualification, the California Trailblazer’s Financial Reports list no more than 44 donors in a 2 year cycle and appear to list no more than 66 unique donors since 2011. This gets worse when you factor that 4 County Party Central Committees are listed among the donors in addition to 12 elected Republican officeholders.

Yet, we are to believe that Jessica Patterson can raise money to support a $4.4 Million a year operating budget for the CAGOP.

An Interesting Data Point – the CAGOP Raised $34 Million in 2017-2018 Election Cycle. 70+% of that money was spent on voter contact. (Meridian Pacific, the consultant running Jessica Patterson’s Chairman Campaign was the single largest vendor to the CAGOP by the way)

Travis Allen Raised an average of $410 K a year as an assemblyman, a lot of it from the same donors that Jessica Patterson’s supporters claim won’t take Travis Allen’s phone calls. Allen even got $11K from Charles Munger.

The real difference however, and what I believe scares team Patterson the most is Travis Allen’s 25,000+ donor list. Being able to raise $1,800,000 for his governor campaign against the entire establishment (and this blogger to boot) means that his donor base does not come with the usual strings.

People refer to the “Third House”, this is an arrogant term used to refer to the PAC Donors, Lobbyists, Special Interests and Wealthy folks that donate thousands and exercise payment to influence. They are a different crowd than the much smaller Oligarchy of Controlled Failure within the CAGOP I’ve been writing about. These people consider themselves the “Third House” because of the insane amount of influence they have over everything in Sacramento. (The Assembly and Senate are houses 1 and 2)

Now, go back to the expose’ about the finances of the California Trailblazers – you will see the Third House all over it. Then, add in the argument about “Fundraising” and ask yourself who Jessica Patterson will be beholden to as Chairman of the CAGOP? It is not an unreasonable question.

I think starting with thousands of donors and a massive social media presence is just the kind of a fresh start the CAGOP needs.

Candidate #3? The last time he had real influence in the CAGOP his client, a former CAGOP Chairman left the party $2 Million in the hole. #EPICFAIL

The final score? Travis Allen $3.6 Million. California Trailblazers (not Jessica Patterson, mind you) $2.4 Million. Now we know who can raise money.