Billionaire tax: how a union leader's idea became defining issue of CA midterms

> The venture capitalist Conway spelled it out in a podcast in March: “Our job is to get Gavin to negotiate this so that it doesn’t get to the ballot. So maybe they don’t get the signatures.”

> When the SEIU-UHW used mostly volunteers to amass their signatures, the opposition campaign reportedly attempted another plan – purchase the firm the union used for signature-collection, so that those signatures couldn’t be used, according to Regan. The same idea was floated in the Signal chat, according to the San Francisco Standard, with one participant reportedly messaging: “That’s what you would do in business: If there’s an impediment, just buy it.”

> Fred Kimball is the president of the signature-gathering firm Kimball Petition Management, which worked with the SEIU-UHW and pioneered this type of business. He said that not only did his company endure denial-of-service cyberattacks, which stalled their signature validation process, but he received two calls from unnamed individuals inquiring about a sale.