Free Republic

In the springtime, strategists for Meg Whitman in her campaign for governor of California probably felt they’d died and gone to heaven in. In a state roiled in political in-fighting, effectively bankrupt, and a political atmosphere in which the electorate was sharpening pitchforks and boiling tar, you had a non-political woman, an internet legend, immensely successful, running as a moderate Republican, which all the pundits agree is the only way for Republicans to get elected in California. Meg Whitman, the first female billionaire in fact, with all the private money available one could ever hope to spend. And the opponent?...

I almost spit on my keyboard when on BOR's talking points memo, he says the following: "Jerry Brown is an honest guy!" O'reilly, you've shown your idiocy again.

? Whitman loses and so does Prop 19? How does that work out? FA

With only a few days until Election Day, Democrat Jerry Brown holds a slightly smaller lead over Republican Meg Whitman in California’s gubernatorial race. The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters shows Brown picking up 49% support, while Whitman draws the vote from 45%. Two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate, and three percent (3%) are still undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.) These numbers move the race from Leans Democrat back to a Toss-Up in the Rasmussen Reports Gubernatorial Scorecard.

Former Gov. Pete Wilson is the only politician to have beaten Jerry Brown in an election. In 1982, Wilson, then-San Diego mayor, trounced Brown, then California's bigfoot governor, in the race for U.S. Senate 51 to 45 percent. Now Wilson serves as Meg Whitman's campaign chairman. On Thursday, he told me not to believe polls that show Whitman losing by as much as double digits. Whitman, he says, has a real shot at beating Brown. Polls that show Whitman losing, Wilson said, "are greatly underestimating the enthusiasm on the part of the Republicans and pretty much a lack of it...

If early voting is an indication of how Tuesday's midterm elections will go--and it's debatable whether, and how, it can--early vote-by mail turnout in California predicts close races for Senate and governor. Here's a breakdown of who has voted already through the state's vote-by-mail program, provided to The Atlantic by a source close to the California Republican Party. By party registration, here's a who has mailed a ballot so far: Total Returns:   2,456,455 Dem: 1,056,498 (43.0%) Rep: 959,617 (39.1%) Decline to State: 350,337 (14.3%) The California Secretary of State's office could not be reached for comment to confirm or deny...

I know it’s a bold prediction, especially in light of the poll numbers from the LA Times and the Field Poll, but Meg Whitman is about to take Jerry Brown to the mat. Here’s why: 1. Rasmussen has moved the race from Leans Democrat to Toss-up as of their latest report. It’s back in the margin of error of 4 points, at 49 to 45 in favor of Brown.

The Michael Kinsley definition of politcal gaffe is the accidental telling of an embarrassing truth — and if that’s the case, Jerry Brown committed the ultimate gaffe. Only Brown didn’t commit the gaffe in this campaign; he committed it fifteen years ago in an interview with CNN. Brown told the network that politicians in his experience don’t really have plans for governing, or at least specifically in his own experience. He admitted that he lied in order to win election in 1974, and Meg Whitman pounces on it in this eleventh-hour ad:

California GOP gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman says her former housekeeper should be deported. Whitman — down 10 percentage points in the latest Field Poll after spending over $140 million of her own money on the campaign — said Nicky Diaz should be forced to leave the country for lying about her illegal status. “It breaks my heart, but she should be deported because she forged documents, and she lied about her immigration status,” Whitman told Fox News's Greta Van Susteren on Wednesday night.

Between radical democrat Jerry Brown and rino Meg Whitman, Californians have no suitable candidate for governor.Mitt Romney spent $ 10 mill of his own money in a failed effort to win the Iowa Caucus in 2008. He was bested by Huckabee who spent $ 1 mill on Iowa.After the big primary showdown of Super Tuesday Romney suspended his campaign for the presidency after spending $ 42 mill of his own money out of a total campaign expense of $ 97 mill.By contrast rino candidate Meg Whitman has spent $162 mill trying to be elected governor in California. Thought Romney was...

With only a few days until Election Day, Democrat Jerry Brown holds a slightly smaller lead over Republican Meg Whitman in California’s gubernatorial race. The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters shows Brown picking up 49% support, while Whitman draws the vote from 45%. Two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate, and three percent (3%) are still undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.) These numbers move the race from Leans Democrat back to a Toss-Up in the Rasmussen Reports Gubernatorial Scorecard. Last week, Brown held a 48% to 42% edge over Whitman. Support for Brown,...

With only a few days until Election Day, Democrat Jerry Brown holds a slightly smaller lead over Republican Meg Whitman in California’s gubernatorial race. The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters shows Brown picking up 49% support, while Whitman draws the vote from 45%. Two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate, and three percent (3%) are still undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.) These numbers move the race from Leans Democrat back to a Toss-Up in the Rasmussen Reports Gubernatorial Scorecard. Last week, Brown held a 48% to 42% edge over Whitman. Support for Brown,...

With only a few days until Election Day, Democrat Jerry Brown holds a slightly smaller lead over Republican Meg Whitman in California’s gubernatorial race. The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters shows Brown picking up 49% support, while Whitman draws the vote from 45%. Two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate, and three percent (3%) are still undecided.

With only a few days until Election Day, Democrat Jerry Brown holds a slightly smaller lead over Republican Meg Whitman in California’s gubernatorial race. The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters shows Brown picking up 49% support, while Whitman draws the vote from 45%. Two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate, and three percent (3%) are still undecided.

After defeating Steve Poizner in the Republican primary, it looked as though Meg Whitman would simply steamroll the Democrat candidate. Meg Whitman had been the CEO of e-Bay and became a billionaire in the process. The idea of a successful businesswoman running California had a strong appeal, but an over-managed campaign by inept advisers and Whitman’s inability to take a stand on key issues of the greatest importance to California doomed her campaign to failure. The individual running against Meg Whitman is none other than aging hippie retread, Jerry Brown, the same bungler who allowed California state workers to unionize,...

I have a serious question. California is in desperate straits. Your budget is out of control. Your government gives me directives about personal hygiene when I check into a hotel. I can't walk around in San Francisco without being accosted or worse by criminals (and, I was born, raised, and lived in Brooklyn NY in the worst Beame years).Now, everybody in California knows this. Liberals can't walk around SF either. They can add, and they can read, and they know the state is bankrupt with no way out.How then is it even possible for Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer to...

As Republican gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman tours parts of California that have traditionally been receptive to GOP candidates, she's also appealing directly to conservative TV audiences, hoping to fire up her party's base. Until now she has declined to comment on whether the former housekeeper should be deported. But Wednesday, in an interview with Greta Van Susteren, Whitman answered the question head on. "Well, the answer is it breaks my heart, but she should be deported because she forged documents and she lied about her immigration status," Whitman said. She also argued that as a Republican she would be a...

GOP's California Gubernatorial Candidate Plays Catch-Up With Sophisticated Voter-Turnout Effort in Campaign's Final Days. OAKLAND, Calif.—Volunteers for Republican Meg Whitman's campaign for California governor are calling voters in Farsi, Korean and two Chinese dialects. They are canvassing Latino voters in East Los Angeles. Ms. Whitman, trailing in every poll, has rolled out a big get-out-the-vote operation, funded with part of the $162 million she has spent on the race so far. The effort is a particularly sophisticated version of voter-mobilization pushes candidates and parties are ratcheting up with less than a week before Election Day. Many candidates believe get-out-the-vote drives...

LONG BEACH -- At a remarkable forum attended by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his two potential successors, Democrat Jerry Brown said today that he would stop running negative TV ads if opponent Meg Whitman does the same. "No problem,'' Brown said. "I will take down any advertising remotely construed as a personal attack." No deal, said an obviously flustered Whitman, who was down 13 points in the latest Los Angeles Times/USC poll. To the boos of the audience at the annual Women's Conference sponsored by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and wife Maria Shriver, Whitman said that "people need to understand'' Brown's...

WESTLAKE VILLAGE – Meg Whitman said Monday that if elected governor she would appoint only judges who support the death penalty. The Republican candidate's remarks preceded a rally outside Los Angeles at which she told hundreds of supporters that Democrat Jerry Brown is "soft on crime" and that she will end his political career. "One more week," Whitman told a cheering crowd at the Hyatt Westlake Plaza in Westlake Village. "One more week until we retire Jerry Brown permanently from politics." Whitman, joined by crime victim advocates, told The Bee she would treat the death penalty as a litmus test...