Newsom Political Action Committee Padded Memoir Sales Through Bulk Purchase

I have a couple of fun thought experiments for your consideration today:

1. “If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
2. If your political action committee mass purchases your memoir, are you really a New York Time’s bestseller?

I’ll leave the tree debate up to you, but when it comes to the memoir scenario, I am going to go with a resounding “No ma’am.” But alas, if you are a lizard man, you probably don’t care how you become a New York Time’s bestseller, you just care about the title.

Fox News reports:

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s political action committee spent more than $1.5 million buying thousands of copies of his new memoir — accounting for about two-thirds of all copies sold nationwide — according to campaign finance filings.

The PAC spending helped propel Newsom’s memoir, “Young Man in a Hurry,” onto the New York Times bestseller list and is raising new scrutiny as his national profile builds ahead of a possible 2028 presidential run.

In November, the Campaign for Democracy Committee launched a book campaign asking donors to contribute any amount to the PAC to receive the memoir when it was released on Feb. 24. Newsom spokesperson Nathan Click told the New York Times that the PAC bought about 67,000 copies—representing a substantial portion of the 97,400 total sold.

This feels lot like high-fiving yourself. But hey, whatever makes you feel like a big, strong author, Gavin.