Whitman Adds $13 Million To Campaign For California Governor

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Billionaire Republican Meg Whitman has given her campaign for California governor another $13 million, bringing her total contribution from her personal fortune to $104 million.

The former eBay chief executive had spent nearly $100 million on her primary and general election contests through the end of June, making it the most expensive campaign in California history.

Her Democratic rival, state Attorney General Jerry Brown, has spent just $774,000, including donated services, although union-backed groups have spent nearly $6 million on ads supporting him. The latest is scheduled to begin airing Monday.

Public opinion polls show the two are locked in a dead heat, with nearly a quarter of voters still undecided.

Word of Whitman's most recent contribution came in a filing late Friday with the secretary of state's office.

Comments

[planetmondo]

01:41 PM on 08/29/2010

Meg looks like Princess Jabba. (Leah+Jabba the hut's daughter.)

[Spartan22]

07:17 PM on 08/26/2010

Why would a person pay over $104 million dollars for a hard job that pays $212,000 a year?
Most people get a job to get paid $100k a year. They don't pay $100k for a stupid job

[TallThinMan]

06:50 PM on 08/19/2010

Jerry Brown will bankrupt this state further due to his ties to UNIONS
Meg Whitman does NOT stand for fiscally conservative values and will be the Second Coming
of Schwarzenegger
There is a THIRD choice and her name is Chelene Nightingale
Get Involved
nightingaleforgovernor.com

[500 a]

01:37 AM on 08/18/2010

Hey I love that look, paper napkin on her head. Priceless.

[LogicalMathMan]

02:08 PM on 08/17/2010

Flouting the debacle that was Enron, Prop 16 was on the CA ballot couched as a 'right to vote' initiative on energy. It was soundly defeated statewide even though big energy companies poured millions into defeating the government-controlled status quo of providing this essential service.

I was encouraged by the strategy used by those who opposed this measure. They merely focused their campaign funds in areas where voters were more cognizant of Enron's excesses. The result was that while Orange County and San Diego County handed these proponents convincing victory margins, they were soundly defeated in most counties in northern CA. Brilliant! I suspect Moonbeam is holding on to his campaign rhetoric until it really matters - closer to November.

[RuffNReddy]

12:06 PM on 08/17/2010

Can't. Wait. For. The. Debates.

the Brown dog is sharpening his canines as we speak...

[mlaiuppa]

02:21 AM on 08/17/2010

$104 million and saturated advertising and the best she can do is a draw?

Thanks for the personal stimulus to the California Economy, Meg. But I'll still vote for Governor Moonbeam.

[steve12]

02:04 AM on 08/17/2010

I think Brown better get off his keister and start spending some cash, if he hopes to win against this multibillionaire. She is a formidable foe and although I personally think she is the greatest threat to California, since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, I think he can win, but he has to start campaigning NOW!

[ChelseaInNJ]

01:52 AM on 08/17/2010

The public unions are spending millions, they are scared to death Meg will win and actually force them to accept what the state can afford vs. absurd pensions which we can't afford.

Some of the unions are actually increasing dues to pay for the campaign against Meg.

It's war...........pick your side.

[steve12]

02:18 AM on 08/17/2010

and yet the Republicans voted for the same law in vast numbers that you criticize. Brown is known as a fiscal conservative. Whitman is known for paying $2.6 billion for Skype. Who do you think will actually do something. Schwarzenegger certainly hasn't.

[Cichawoda]

11:03 AM on 08/17/2010

"It's war...........pick your side. " - well dear we know who's side you are on and it ain't the American people.

Since the the election of RR the transfer of wealth to the rich has almost destroyed the middle class and pushed America ever closer to becoming a 3rd world country. This is the goal of people like Fiorina and Witman — lovely gated communities for the rich a jobless future for the rest of us as long as we want to earn more than the Chinese because that is were our jobs have been going since the 70s.

"absurd pensions which we can't afford" — it's the absurd pay and golden parachutes of incompetent corporate executives we can't afford. They live the life of Riley while we have to constantly bail them out and pick up the cr4p after them.

[RenoSage]

04:52 PM on 08/17/2010

fanned.
That's telling it like it is.
Corporations are trying hard to discredit the unions.

[ChelseaInNJ]

01:47 AM on 08/17/2010

Jerry Brown is light years past his prime. If you are a public employee of course you should vote for him, if you don't have to pay taxes you should probably vote for him, but if you happen to pay taxes and are sick of your property taxes paying $200,000/year pension to a cop, firemen, or assistant city manager, he is the last person you should vote for.

[steve12]

01:51 AM on 08/17/2010

and yet this payment of over $200K per year pension that you speak of occurred under a Republican governor. Do you think another one would make a difference? Orange County is probably the most conservative county in California and yet many of these excesses have occurred here. Perhaps you can explain why?

[ChelseaInNJ]

01:58 AM on 08/17/2010

The CA state legislature has been controlled by Dems since 1970. Blaming Arnie is absurd. SB400 was passed under Gray Davis (memba him) and SB400 really jacked up the pensions. Arnie did try pension reform but of course the Dem controlled legislature killed any chance of reform.

[Cichawoda]

10:45 AM on 08/17/2010

So who should get good pensions? Only corrupt corporate executives and thieving bankers who do nothing for society? A policeman who spend years risking his life to protect yours should get what?

Are you guys going to go after military pensions next? They do cost over $18.3 billion a year and you get one after only 20 years.

Maybe if we went back to the tax rates that we had when this country was the leader of the free world — we had strong unions, great schools, great infrastructure and still money to send a man to the moon. People like you have been trying to turn this country into a solely owned corporate subsidiary since RR got elected. The tide just might be turning as long as Americans remember that it's the corporate execs in co-hoots with the Republicans that got us into the mess we are in.

[ChelseaInNJ]

11:31 AM on 08/17/2010

The issue is not "good pensions"; the issue is "absurd pensions". Should a HS grad get a $150,000/pension at age 50, which is 90% paid by the taxpayer? We can't afford it and it is not deserved in most cases.

[SilentSolidarity]

01:21 AM on 08/17/2010

She will lose. Even better when she also loses a bunch of money. Jerry Brown is barely campaigning and still leading the polls.

[RuffNReddy]

12:11 PM on 08/17/2010

Like i said... the debates.
He doesn't need to spend a dime.

I think the public is tired of her infomercials anyway.

[LeeCalif]

11:54 PM on 08/16/2010

How much did Bloomberg spend to buy his office ?

[genfair]

11:42 PM on 08/16/2010

Jerry will almost certainly win this race: she hasn't gained any traction with her first 100 million: I don't think another 100 will change it much.

[juerofritzy]

10:12 PM on 08/16/2010

Smeg never even voted for over twenty years...I smell a rat.Ill take Jerry Brown over this carpetbagger any time

[Bibulus]

09:17 PM on 08/16/2010

Oft repeated Question : Why would Meg Antoinette spend for a job that only pays $200K

Answer : Because that's not the job she is after. Two years ago her and Mitt Romney decided on their ticket together. Mittens needs a woman as a foil to the Moosiah and a sitting Harvard edumacated CEO Governor of California is his wet-dream Veep. Ironic that these two go-getter's plans will be foiled by red-eyed stoners with Cheetos stained fingers pulling the lever for up-ticket democrats while they're there to vote for Prop 219.

...I simply can't wait for all the 'professional punditry' professing their 'shock' at the landslide victories for Brown & Boxer. Trust me when I say these first-time voters will be LEGION.

[ChelseaInNJ]

01:50 AM on 08/17/2010

This is all basically mid term elections from the national view and 'Bots and young voters tend to stay home and smoke a joint instead of voting. Conservatives will be out with a vengance.

[Cichawoda]

10:19 AM on 08/17/2010

Dear you have no idea how wrong that is. The amount of roots action on the progressive side these days is amazing because nobody wants to go back to the Bush days. As for the pot smoking slackers in CA they have a better reason to come out and vote than the religious right who now see that they have been duped by the GOP. Even Beck has dumped them for a new tool — the teabaggers.

[LogicalMathMan]

02:12 PM on 08/17/2010

And you think pot smokers will stay home what with legalizing marijuana on the ballot?