(We have lots of them here)
California is ruled by an aristocracy
Aristocracy
1. the highest class in certain societies, especially those holding hereditary titles or offices.
“the ancient Polish aristocracy had hereditary right to elect the king”
synonyms:
nobility, peerage, gentry, gentility, upper class, ruling class, elite, high society, establishment, haut monde;More
* a form of government in which power is held by the nobility.
* a state governed by the aristocracy.
plural noun: aristocracies
California Aristocrats:
Pat Brown, former Governor of California, deceased.
Jerry Brown, Governor of California, net worth $4,000,000
Dianne Feinstein, Senator, estimate net worth $94 million
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House estimated net worth of $100,643,521
Barbara Boxer former Senator has a net worth of $6 million
John Burton Democratic Chairman net worth (?)
Gordon Getty net worth is $2 billion
The State of California
3rd largest State in the Union
155,973S square miles
As of 2015 California had the highest population in the USA. Population: 39,144,818
CALIFORNIA
Saga of four intertwined Bay Area families
By Dan Walters
West County Times
1-6-2019Gavin Newsom will be the first Democrat in more than a century to succeed another Democrat as governor and the succession also marks a big generational transition in California politics.
A long-dominant geriatric quintet from the San Francisco Bay Area Gov. Jerry Brown, Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and state Democratic chairman John Burton has been slowly ceding power to younger political strivers.Moreover, Newsom is succeeding someone who could be considered his quasi-uncle since his inauguration continues the decades-long saga of four San Francisco families intertwined by blood, by marriage, by money, by culture and, of course, by politics the Browns, the Newsoms, the Pelosis and the Gettys.
The connections date back at least 80 years, to when Jerry Browns father, Pat Brown, ran for San Francisco district attorney, losing in 1939 but winning in 1943, with the help of his close friend and Gavin Newsoms grandfather, businessman William Newsom.
Fast forward two decades.
Gov. Pat Browns administration developed Squaw Valley for the 1960 Winter Olympics and afterward awarded a concession to operate it to William Newsom and his partner, John Pelosi.One of the Pelosis sons, Paul, married Nancy DAlesandro, who went into politics and has now reclaimed the speakership of the House of Representatives.
Another Pelosi son married William Newsoms daughter, Barbara. Until they divorced, that made Nancy Pelosi something like an aunt by marriage to Gavin Newsom (Nancy Pelosis brother-in-law was Gavin Newsoms uncle).
The Squaw Valley concession was controversial at the time and created something of a rupture between the two old friends.William Newsom wanted to make significant improvements to the ski complex, including a convention center, but Browns Department of Parks and Recreation balked. Newsom and his son, an attorney also named William, held a series of contentious meetings with officials over the issue.
An eight-page memo about those 1966 meetings from the departments director, Fred Jones, buried in the Pat Brown archives, describes the Newsoms as being embittered and the senior Newsom threatening to hurt the governor politically as Brown ran for a third term that year against Ronald Reagan.
Pat Browns bid for a third term failed, and the Reagan administration later bought out the Newsom concession. But the Brown-Newsom connection continued as Browns son, Jerry, claimed the governorship in 1974. He appointed the younger William Newsom, a personal friend and Gavins father, to a Placer County judgeship in 1975 and three years later to the state Court of Appeal.
Judge Newsom, who died a few weeks ago, had been an attorney for oil magnate J. Paul Getty, most famously delivering $3 million to Italian kidnapers of Gettys grandson in 1973.
While serving on the appellate bench in the 1980s, he helped Gettys son, Gordon, secure a change in state trust law that allowed him to claim his share of a multi-heir trust.After Newsom retired from the bench in 1995, he became administrator of Gordon Gettys own trust, telling one interviewer, I make my living working for Gordon Getty. The trust provided seed money for the Plumpjack chain of restaurants and wine shops that Newsoms son, Gavin, and Gordon Gettys son, Billy, developed, the first being in a Squaw Valley hotel.
Gavin Newsom had been informally adopted by the Gettys after his parents divorced.
Newsoms Plumpjack business (named for an opera that Gordon Getty wrote) led to a career in San Francisco politics, a stint as mayor, the lieutenant governorship and now to the governorship, succeeding his fathers old friend.
Hes keeping it all in the extended family.
Uh, you forgot Nancys family ran and wrecked Baltimore.