SANTA CLARA, Calif. — He got the attention of the horse-racing world in September, paying $2 million for a yearling colt in a Kentucky thoroughbred sale.
David Shimmon, 41-year-old Silicon Valley businessman, outbid Dubai's crown prince for the chestnut steed.
Earlier this month, California politicians pricked up their ears when Shimmon, chief executive officer of Kinetics Group Inc. in Santa Clara, emerged as the state's leading campaign contributor, donating $200,000 to Gov. Gray Davis and a whopping $250,000 to state Treasurer Phil Angelides. Neither politician has an election in sight for more than two years.
Suddenly everyone with ambitions for Sacramento or Washington wants to know: Who is this wealthy wunderkind who invests in untested horses and off-season politicians?
Shimmon presents himself as an ordinary guy with $100 million who likes business, horses and sports, more or less in that order. "I'm a sports guy," he said several times in an interview, sipping from a can of Diet Coke. Later: "I'm a business guy." Later: "I'm a family guy."
But Shimmon also seeks and enjoys access to state leaders, and he's willing to pay for it. He admits that his money gives him extra access, but he insists that he has nothing to gain by it.
"I am just an investor in good people," he said. "What I expect in return is a qualified individual who is going to perform well in the job."
He is a Silicon Valley and California chauvinist. He thinks the Golden State should have more say in foreign affairs. He views political contributions as investments in California's future.
New Class of Entrepreneurs
Shimmon is part of the new class of entrepreneurs and inventors in the Silicon Valley who in recent years have played an increasingly important role in political fund-raising. Listed earlier this month among the major donors to Davis' $13.2-million campaign war chest were several of the valley's high-tech firms, including Cisco Systems ($75,000 from three executives), Intel ($25,000) and Intuit ($25,000).
But unlike most of the computer nerds and MBAs who proliferate here, this grandson of Middle Eastern immigrants is not a political neophyte. Shimmon's father toiled 37 years in the office of a Democratic politician before running three times (unsuccessfully) for a post on the obscure State Board of Equalization.
In fact, Angelides and others contend, the father is the key to understanding Shimmon's political activism.
