User:Lagrange613/Charles Munger Jr.

Charles Thomas Munger Jr. (born 1956) is an American political activist and physicist. He is the largest Republican donor in California, having spent over $78 million he received from his father Charlie Munger on a number of Republican candidates and ballot propositions. This has nurtured his influence within the state party, which he has tried to make more moderate while recruiting female and Latino candidates.

Munger grew up and was educated in California. He trained as a physicist at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley. Important research included developing a technique to detect antihydrogen as the byproduct of another experiment. Walter Oelert used this technique to detect antihydrogen for the first time.

Personal life
Munger was born in 1956. His father, Charlie Munger, is the longtime vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, and his mother, Nancy Barry Munger, was a philanthropist who served on the board of Stanford University. He has seven siblings and half-siblings; among them is Molly Munger. He grew up in the Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, attending a local public elementary school and the private Harvard School for Boys for high school.

Munger married lawyer Charlotte Amanda Lowell in Newport Beach, California, on February 11, 1989. They live in Palo Alto, California, and have three children.

Munger is a practicing Presbyterian.

Academic career
Munger earned a bachelor's degree in Physics from Stanford University in 1979 and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1987. He then took a postdoctoral position at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). That position ended around 1992; Munger has not had a paid job since.

Munger's specialty within physics is particle physics. In the early 1990s, he, fellow SLAC physicist Stanley Brodsky, and Ivan Schmidt devised a means of confirming the presence antihydrogen as a byproduct of another particle physics experiment. Antihydrogen had never been observed in the laboratory. Munger led a team including colleagues from the University of California, Irvine and Pennsylvania State University trying to run the experiment at Fermilab. However, before they could complete the experiment, a team at CERN led by Walter Oelert used Munger's technique to detect antihydrogen for the first time.

In 2003, a report by the California State Board of Education described Munger as a "retired experimental physicist". However, as of 2019, he was listed as a research affiliate of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Accelerator Technology and Applied Physics Division.

Political activism
Munger was briefly active in politics as a teenager, during the 1976 United States presidential election, making telephone calls for Democratic Party nominee Jimmy Carter. (Carter, a moderate liberal, won the election, defeating incumbent Republican president Gerald Ford. ) Munger was attracted to Carter's moral character but was dissatisfied with his performance in office.

Afterward, Munger was largely inactive in politics, until his oldest child began first grade. Dissatisfied with the mathematics education in Palo Alto schools, Munger joined the California State Board of Education's Curriculum Development and Supplemental Materials Commission, serving for four years. As his political involvement has grown since then, he has become the biggest Republican donor in California, granting him significant power within the party. As of 2015, Munger had spent over $78 million on political campaigns. He spends both on supporting Republican candidates directly and on promoting state ballot propositions. Munger's money comes from his father's fortune, parts of which his father has distributed to his children.

Candidates
Munger's first involvement in Republican politics came as a volunteer on Steve Poizner's 2004 campaign for the California State Assembly. Munger carried out typical volunteer tasks like labeling envelopes, but he also made suggestions on strategy, impressing Poizner's campaign manager.

During the 2014 California gubernatorial election, Munger donated to Abel Maldonado's exploratory committee. After Maldonado dropped out, Munger donated to an independent expenditure committee supporting Republican Neel Kashkari over Republican Tim Donnelly. Kashkari defeated Donnelly, advancing to the general election, which incumbent Demcoratic governor Jerry Brown won.

In 2015, Munger donated $400,000 to a Super PAC supporting Carly Fiorina's campaign in the Republican presidential primary. Donald Trump won the nomination.

During the 2016 election cycle, Munger donated $1.2 million on behalf of Catharine Baker, the Republican Assemblywoman in California's 16th State Assembly district, with nearly $1 million coming hours after then-President Barack Obama endorsed Baker's opponent. Munger also spent $1.4 million supporting Republican incumbent David Hadley in California's 66th State Assembly district in the same cycle. Baker won her election, while Hadley lost his.

Ballot propositions
Munger has long supported ballot propositions intended to reduce the political power of Democrats and unions in California.

Munger cites the 2005 California special election called by then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as his inspiration to enter politics. Voters rejected every proposition in that election.

Munger credited Poizner's loss in 2004 with sparking his interest in nonpartisan redistricting. In 2008, Munger supported Proposition 11, which created the California Citizens Redistricting Commission to draw the lines for districts in state elections. Voters approved it. In 2010, he spent $12.6 million, which he described as 10% of his net worth, on two propositions related to redistricting. He supported Proposition 20, which expanded the Citizens Redistricting Commission's mandate to drawing U.S. House of Representatives districts, and opposed Proposition 27, which would have dismantled the commission. Voters approved Proposition 20 and rejected Proposition 27.

In 2012, Munger spent $35 million opposing Proposition 30, which raised taxes to fund public education in the state. In the same election cycle, Munger's half-sister Molly Munger spent $47 million promoting Proposition 38, an alternative proposition to raise taxes for education funding.. Molly Munger's advocacy prompted contrast with her half-brother's opposition to the similar Proposition 30. Voters rejected Proposition 38 while approving Proposition 30, which was backed by Governor Jerry Brown.

Also in 2012, Munger supported Proposition 32, which would have reduced the political power of unions in several ways. Voters rejected the proposition.

In 2016, Munger spent $7.9 million promoting Proposition 54, which required that bills be published for at least 72 hours before the Legislature could pass them. Munger was the proposition's sole financial backer. Voters approved the proposition.

California Republican Party
Munger has tried to use his influence within the California Republican Party to influence its ideology and demography. He has advocated for centrism, particularly on social issues, and funded Latino, female, and moderate Republican candidates. To this end, he has sometimes spent money opposing Republicans he considers too right-wing, for example California State Assembly member Allan Mansoor in 2012. This has made him enemies in the party, and prompted the creation of an anonymous blog called "The Munger Games" that called him a "one-man maelstrom of money intent on remaking California Republicanism in his bow-tied image." Munger ally and attorney Harmeet Dhillon filed suit aiming to discover the identities of the "Munger Games" authors.

Munger chaired the Santa Clara County Republican Party from 2012 to 2015.

In January 2015, Business Insider cited Munger as one of several potential candidates for the United States Senate seat being vacated in 2016 by Barbara Boxer. However, by February 2015, Munger had ruled out running. California Attorney General Kamala Harris, a Democrat, ultimately won the election.