Whitman leads in cash for Calif. governor race

CNET ^ | August 1, 2009 11:43 AM PDT | Michelle Meyers

[SmokingJoe]

California's gubernatorial primary is still 10 months away, but the multimillion-dollar race for campaign cash has already picked up a quick pace, with former eBay CEO Meg Whitman at the front of the pack.

It's no surprise that the billionaire Internet exec, who has never held elected office, has lots of money in the bank to spend on her campaign. According to a tally Saturday, she has some $19 million in cash available--and that's after spending $6.1 million to get her campaign operations up and running. It's also after she contributed first $4 million, then $15 million of her own money to the race.

But for the first half of the year, Whitman, a GOP candidate, also raised $6.7 million in individual campaign contributions, according to press accounts on campaign finance reports posted Friday. Coming in second for individual contributions was Democratic rival Attorney General Jerry Brown, who reportedly raised $3.4 million in individual contributions during the same period.

According to Whitman's campaign, her recent $15 million contribution to the campaign was part of a 3-to-1 match on the first $5 million donated by supporters. Of the $6.7 million she received from individuals, some noteworthy donations include, according to the San Jose Mercury News, $52,000 from Sun Microsystems Chairman Scott McNealy and his wife, and $26,000 from former Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang (who also, incidentally, donated the same amount to Democratic candidate and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom).

[SmokingJoe]

Anyone who can hammer the left wing loon, Jerry Brown, has my support.

[Yossarian]

Whitman wants us taxpayers to pay for abortions.

Unless someone steps up who at least doesn’t want me to pay for babies being killed, I’m sitting this one out.

[Yossarian]

Whitman wants us taxpayers to pay for abortions.

Unless someone steps up who at least doesn’t want me to pay for babies being killed, I’m sitting this one out.

[fieldmarshaldj]

There are no Conservatives currently running for Governor on the GOP side in CA.

[Marty62]

Didn’t she support Zero?

[Reagan Man]

Schwarzenegger, Romney, Giuliani...

... Meg Whitman’s no better.

[Cheap_Hessian]

I’m not impressed with Whitman at all. If I still lived in California, I know I wouldn’t vote for her. I don’t think she will solve California’s problems, and she lacks basic Conservative principles.

[SmokingJoe]

All the above comments are probably true, but this is Jerry Brown we are talking about here. Yeah, THAT Jerry Brown. California's probably just like New York. You very, very rarely get true conservatives elected to state wide political positions, so the Republicans that win statewide positions are usually not real conservatives.
However bad Meg Whittman is, she can't be as bad as Jerry Brown. That guy really gives me nightmares. He'd make 0bama look like a conservative.

[Cheap_Hessian]

"You very, very rarely get true conservatives elected to state wide political positions"

I am sure you are right. I remember it really stunk because there was a surprising number of Conservative areas throughout California, but they all get drowned out by the crazies.

[GOPGuide]

I’m actually shocked that Whitman has a reasonable shot at winning the GE.

Arnold has been so awful that I assumed the Democrats would take back the governorship.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Gray Davis was a pretty awful Governor, until Ah-nold succeeded him. Davis looks pretty good now. After Jerry got his two terms, CA got George Deukmejian, the last great Governor the state had.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Well, unless there’s a Conservative GOP nominee, I’ll probably endorse the AIP candidate. Liberals running as Republicans are still liberals. Wrong is still wrong.

[BunnySlippers]

In CA it’s always the lesser of two evils. I’ll vote for the Repub front runner.

[AmericanSphinx71]

A conservatve would never win here. If we want a Republican Governor in California, it will have to be a RINO, whic sadly is still better than a far left moonbat the Jerry Brown or Gavin Newsome.

[SoConPubbie]

Nothing, and I mean Nothing, here for a conservative to get excited about.

She’s probably not going to be much better than Arnold, and he was horrible.

[fieldmarshaldj]

As long as you keep believing that, the state will continue to sink into the abyss. I submit any state in the country could elect a Conservative Republican Governor (Rhode Island has one now, and that state is far more Dem than CA), but we need to stop apologizing for our beliefs, especially when they ARE right, and start running candidates that will make the changes needed and fix the horrific problems in these places. And to your other point, a RINO is not, and never will be better than a Democrat. A RINO inflicts far worse damage than a Democrat, enacts their Socialist agenda, helps Democrats sweep the next election and gets the GOP painted with their failures. Just look at the epic fail fiasco Ah-nold has been responsible for. Remember what two terms of Jerry Brown got California... George Deukmejian. If Jerry Brown had been a RINO, Tom Bradley would've won in 1982.