"I know it will have a national effect," Jim Watson, a San Francisco-based venture capitalist who serves on the executive committee of the "No on 23" campaign, said in an interview in Washington. "It really is a test of the people's will," said Watson, the managing general partner of CMEA Capital, which has $1.2 billion invested in energy, information technology and life sciences companies, according to its website.
Private Contribution
Gates's contribution was a private one and not from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said John Pinette, a spokesman for Gates. Google declined to comment on Brin's contribution. Cameron declined to comment on his donation, said Steven Maviglio, a spokesman for a committee that is campaigning to defeat the proposition.
Backers of the ballot initiative are "quite confident" it will prevail on election day, Anita Mangels, a spokeswoman for the "Yes on 23" committee, said in a telephone interview.
"The volume of venture-capital dollars" that have been devoted to defeating Proposition 23 are meant to "artificially prop up" investments in "clean-tech" companies, Mangels said.
Venture capital firms have invested $9 billion in clean- technology companies in the state since 2005, said Martin Lagod, co-founder and managing director of Firelake Capital Management LLC in Palo Alto, California and an opponent of the ballot measure.
Most of that money was invested on the assumption that California would enforce its greenhouse gas limits, he said.