It wasn't just us giving Jeb Bush a warm welcome to San Francisco when the former Florida Governor rode in to town yesterday with his anonymous donor Super Pac "Right to Rise" in mind.
It sounds like Bush got an earful from Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff for his support of Indiana's now backpedalled "religious freedom" anti-gay discrimination law. The two spoke before Jeb's talk at the Mandarin Oriental, and afterwards Benioff thanked Bush on Twitter for being so receptive to his arguments. One of those, by the way, had been the argument that he was going to move Salesforce workers out of Indiana.
But Benioff had apparently missed Bush's remarks of a day earlier to a Palo Alto audience. The transcript obtained by the Chronicle reads,
“What I do believe—that protecting religious freedom is something that’s important and it has to be done state by state, because the current federal law only applies to federal activities...I do think if you’re a florist and you don’t want to participate in the arrangement of a wedding, you shouldn’t have to be obliged to do that if it goes against your faith because you believe in traditional marriage... Likewise if someone walked into a flower shop as a gay couple and said I want to buy all these off the rack, these flowers, they should have every right to do it.’’
Benioff left before the event at the Mandarin Oriental began, so he missed whatever was said there, too. Just a few attendees were willing to speak to reporters, among them venture capitalist David Morgenthaler, who had come to hear Bush’s views on foreign policy.
Yet one notable "super angel" investor and "Decline to State" voter present was Ron Conway, The Intercept reports. Conway's influential sf.citi is a dominant tech trade association and he's lent political currency to countless local politicians, but most notably Ed Lee.
It would be nice to know where Conway stands on BUSH III, but again, it's a Super PAC world, so we might never know! At least we can confirm Conway supports his "good friend" MC Hammer.
Happy Birthday to my good friend @MCHammer!!!
— Ron Conway (@RonConway) March 30, 2015
Previously: After Praising Moronic Indiana Law, Jeb Bush Comes To SF To Fundraise