Retired boxing champ Floyd Mayweather and comedian Kevin Hart each gave $50,000 to political committees that supported Mayor Christina Fugazi last election, campaign records show.
Their contributions resurfaced in social media discussion this month when Vice Mayor Jason Lee appeared in a Facebook video criticizing Fugazi and expressing disappointment that he and the two celebrities had spent money supporting her last year.
“I put $70,000 of my own dollars behind her. Kevin Hart put $50,000, Floyd Mayweather put $50,000, so we could start to create new economic business (in) our city,” Lee said in the Sept. 1 video.
The mayor’s office declined to comment on the post.
The video came as division on the City Council has deepened in recent months, with Lee’s and Fugazi’s particularly frequent clashes contrasting starkly with their alliance during campaign season.
The discord came to a head recently when Fugazi limited councilmembers’ speaking time at an Aug. 30 council meeting, and Lee called the mayor’s handling of the session “a joke.” Councilmembers then voted to launch three separate investigations, including two into fellow members, at the same meeting.
So amid Stockton’s complicated local politics — notoriously quarrelsome even before the recent uptick — why did celebrities throw their resources into the 2024 race?
Mayweather didn’t respond to questions about his contribution, sent through a publicist and an attorney.
The undefeated boxing champion has had a long connection with Lee since he provided millions of dollars to help Lee start the entertainment news site Hollywood Unlocked, Lee wrote in his autobiography. On Oct. 5, 2024, one month before election day, Mayweather appeared at an event at the Bob Hope Theatre alongside then-candidates Fugazi, Lee and Councilmember Mario Enriquez.
At the event, Lee announced plans to start an investment group with Mayweather to revamp Stockton’s Adventist Health Arena, Black Enterprise reported. Plans to partner on a skating rink in the city were also announced, the outlet reported.
Later that month, Mayweather gave $50,000 to a super political action committee — or super PAC — dedicated to supporting Fugazi’s run, campaign records show. The PAC paid NBC/Universal and Comcast for airtime and production costs.
Super PACs are political fundraising groups that can raise unlimited amounts of money from people and companies to support particular candidates, but cannot legally donate directly to the candidate or coordinate with their campaign.
As for Hart, the Emmy- and Grammy-nominated actor and comedian didn’t respond to emailed questions sent to his entertainment company about his contribution. In Oct. 2024, Hart gave $50,000 to the super PAC Citizens for Better Government, campaign records show.
The PAC supported the mayor’s and Enriquez’s campaigns, and opposed Fugazi’s competitor, former County Supervisor Tom Patti, campaign records show. It spent money on mailers, postage, graphic design and data.
Hart has sat for interviews with Lee during the latter’s career as a culture and entertainment commentator. But any direct connection to Fugazi is unclear.
“Mayor Fugazi was not involved in, nor did she coordinate with, any independent expenditure activities related to her campaign,” the mayor’s Chief Heat Policy Advisor, Esperanza Vielma, said via email.
“Accordingly, she does not have insight into the motivations or reasons behind these independent expenditures.”
Celebrity spending on local races far removed from national politics may be rare.
An online search for stories about similar donations revealed an article about a Maryland governor who reportedly received campaign money from the parents of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and from famed rapper Jay-Z’s co-founder at the entertainment company RocNation, among other prominent people. But few other cases popped up.
Treasurers for the PACs that supported Fugazi sent no response to questions.