SACRAMENTO, CA - Gov. Brown has been on the campaign trail pushing his tax initiative, Proposition 30, to help fund California's public schools.
Now a group from Arizona with conservative ties called Americans for Responsible Leadership has donated $11 million into a Super PAC account belonging to Small Business Action Committee to help defeat Brown's measure.
Brown say these out-of-state interests are hurting California's school children.
"In my entire career I've never seen such a secret fund of money poured in the campaign in the last three weeks. But we intend to expose those anonymous donors,"Brown said.
Good government groups are trying to trace the money and have filed a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission to force the PAC to identify donors.
Although unlimited amounts of money can be donated to Super PACs, a new California law says the names of contributors to non-profits must be made public.
"What's challenging about it for voters is you have a hard time evaluating the trustfulness and the bias of the spender," said Derek Cressman with California Common Cause.
But Small Business Action Committee PAC says the law dictates that donors must be revealed only if the money is for something specific like a candidate or ballot measure.
"None of our contributions are earmarked for anything," said Beth Miller with Small Business Action Committee PAC. "And so the $11 million will be spent on what Small Business Action Committee wants it spent."
The Super PAC's goal this election season, though, is to defeat Brown's initiative and to support another measure, Proposition 32, which bans political contributions through payroll deductions.
"We believe the tax proposition in Prop. 30 is unwarranted at this time," said Miller.
It's unclear whether the Fair Political Practices Commission will act fast enough for this election. The campaign finance watchdog could heavily fine the group, subpoena bank statements or do nothing.
Nannette Miranda
ABC7
ABC7