Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and others from Facebook are reportedly spending millions on midterm ballot initiatives ranging from criminal justice reform and increasing public housing spending.
Two organizations founded by Zuckerberg, his wife Priscilla Chan, and Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz spent $1 million each so far to support an Ohio ballot initiative that would reduce criminal drug possession from a felony to a misdemeanor, Axios reported Wednesday.
The two organizations, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and the Open Philanthropy Project, are also spending hundreds of thousands on other initiatives across the country.
As a limited liability company (LLC), the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative can be for-profit and has fewer regulations about spending disclosure, so it’s unclear which organizations were specifically targeted.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative donated through affiliated “social welfare” organizations, Axios repored. One is the Emerson Collective, also a limited liability company, which has donated exclusively to California ballot measures.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative also donated $250,000 to support a California ballot measure that would increase spending on public housing projects.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative was founded by Zuckerberg and his wife. It is currently run by David Plouffe, the former President Barack Obama campaign manager. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s pollster, Joel Benenson, is a consultant for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, The Daily Caller reported in 2017.
The Open Philanthropy Project is primarily funded by Moskovitz. (RELATED: Big Brother: Facebook Is Implementing Chinese-Like Social Media Trustworthiness Rating)
The groups are also eyeing left-leaning 2020 ballot initiatives. Zuckerberg’s organization donated $500,000 to coalitions working to raise commercial property taxes that would fund “education and local services,” as Axios described.
Moskovitz’s organization “coordinated a combined $800,000 in donations to an organization” working on getting a jail reform 2020 ballot initiative in Los Angeles, Axios reported.
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