Documents released Wednesday show national tech execs are sending money to Baltimore, and press from the likes of Re/code and Fast Company are taking notice.
But instead of a big exit like when Groupon bought OrderUp, the money is flowing to a mayoral candidate.
The most recent round of campaign fundraising reports show #BlackLivesMatter activist DeRay Mckesson received donations from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Twitter executive chairman Omid Kordestan and Slack founder Stewart Butterfield. Each donated $6,000.
Mckesson also collected donations through Crowdpac, which was cofounded by Kordestan’s wife (another donor). Re/code has background on his connection to big tech companies:
Mckesson has previously met with workers and executives at tech companies like Google and Twitter, and he’ll be appearing onstage at this year’s Code conference alongside Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and fellow activist Johnetta Elzie. Mckesson is running as a Democrat against more than a dozen others in the party primary.
In all, Mckesson raised nearly $225,000 since launching his candidacy just before the deadline on Feb. 3, and he has about $97,000 on hand. Policy-wise, Mckesson calls for integrating tech into city government by bolstering CitiStat, creating an online hub for “academic enrichment” and exploring “smart city” solutions to infrastructure.
I wonder if any of them have ever been to Baltimore? It would be good to have some transparency on how DeRay is spending all his donations.
Such a waste of funds. Anyone with 1/2 a brain knows that this young man has less than a snowball’s chance in hades to win this mayoral race. He’s bright, articulate, has tremendous energy and evidently has done laudable things on a national level in the wake of police brutality. However, at this time in our city’s history, the only thing De Ray adding his name to the l o n gest lists of candidates to ever run for mayor in our city, will accomplish is to add a public notch on his belt. This young man could have better served our city as a viable City Council candidate, in a district he has lived in long enough to actually be a viable contender, or he would have served the electorate better by supporting one of the candidates that does have a reasonable chance to win. I personally, have lost respect for this young man, why b/c in his right mind, he and his promoters KNOW he will be lucky at the end of the night to garner 1,000 votes. SENIORS vote in this town. And, THEY have No idea WHO he is.