Back in May, my Legal Insurrection colleague Matt Lamb reported that California Governor Gavin Newsom was facing criticism for funneling $20 million in taxpayer dollars to a family friend under the guise of giving out diapers to low-income families.
The $20 million also reportedly does not cover the full costs, but the state does not have a firm plan for how to cover the gap.On May 8, the Democratic governor and 2028 presidential hopeful announced the state had partnered with Baby2Baby to distribute 400 diapers to newborns in specific hospitals.
Now it is being reported that California has delayed the release of its Baby2Baby program.
Two months after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a controversial multimillion-dollar state diaper contract with Baby2Baby, a nonprofit with existing ties to the Newsom administration and the First Partner, Californians still have not been allowed to see the contract or competitive bid records behind the deal to manufacture and deliver millions of California co-branded free diapers to new parents.The delay comes despite repeated requests by CBS California Investigates and despite California law requiring the state to release these records.The Newsom administration waited 24 days to decide whether it would even allow the public to see the records, but continues to delay releasing the Baby2Baby contract and competitive bid records that the governor announced more than two months ago.At the same time, California lawmakers are advancing legislation that would give state agencies additional time to respond to California Public Records Act requests, further extending how long the public must wait for records like these.
Furthermore, a government ethics watchdog is requesting that a state auditor investigate the deal for potential violations of the competitive bid process.
Washington D.C.-based Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) asked State Auditor Grant Parks to probe California’s $6.2M no-bid contract with Baby2Baby, a nonprofit with ties to Newsom’s wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom, alleging the state may have skirted a typical competitive bidding process and concealed records about the free diaper deal.“Immediately after the contract was announced, there were public concerns over whether the contract was awarded in a fair and impartial manner and whether the state was overpaying for the diapers and the program was operated at an unreasonable cost,” Kendra Arnold, executive director of FACT, wrote in a letter to Parks.“The facts relating to both of these issues should have been publicly available, but the Newsom administration has been misleading about whether the contract was awarded in a competitive process and and has mired the entire situation with a complete lack of transparency,” Arnold added.
What began as a virtue-signaling diaper giveaway now looks like another grifting transaction in the growing Newsom-Nonprofit complex, where political allies benefit while taxpayers are left in the dark.
Until the administration produces the contract and bidding records it is legally required to release, Californians have every reason to suspect this “gift” program is more about insider dealing than public service.
Here’s hoping FACT can find all the facts, especially before the 2028 campaign season starts in earnest.
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