Meg Whitman

The Lunacy Of Campaign Spending: The California Gubernatorial Race

Ronald Leave a comment

Personal campaign spending has become a true scandal more than ever this year, and there seems to be no limit on it, with the California Governorship race particularly insane! 🙁

Meg Whitman, the GOP candidate and former EBAY Chief Executive, a billionaire, has spent nearly $100 million in her campaign against Democrat Jerry Brown, the former Governor from 1975-1983, with $91 million of the funds her own money!

Brown, meanwhile, has spent only $450,000, although with donated services, it reaches about three quarters of a million dollars! He has raised $2.6 million for the future campaign!

When one realizes that Brown has been outspent and out fund raised by about 33 times, it is amazing that Brown leads the race in polls by a few points, but it is also a great step to see that wealthy billionaires and multimillionaires do not automatically come out ahead after reckless spending!

The same situation relates to Hewlett Packard multimillionaire Carly Fiorina, running against California Senator Barbara Boxer; Florida gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott, a health executive multimillionaire running against Attorney General Bill McCollum; and Florida Senate candidate Jeff Greene, a stock market billionaire, running against Congressman Kendrick Meek–all of whom are spending obscene amounts of personal fortune, but without any certainty of success!

The best scenario would be for Whitman, Fiorina, and Scott (all Republicans); and Greene (a Democrat) to spend a good part of their fortunes and lose! But even if that does happen, they will still be obscenely wealthy, arrogant and cocky, as they consider themselves a privileged class who are only interested in their own aggrandizement! 🙁

California: Two Businesswomen Fighting The Democratic Dominance!

Ronald Leave a comment

California, one eighth of the nation’s population, will be the center of a lot of political coverage this fall.  Two GOP businesswomen are challenging two long time Democratic officeholders who have never had trouble being elected, and are unlikely to lose their races for Governor and Senator!

I am referring to Meg Whitman, former CEO of Ebay, who is challenging former Governor Jerry Brown, who was the youngest governor in California history when he served from 1975-1983, and now will likely be the oldest governor in the state’s history!

I am also referring to Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett Packard (who was fired with a great severance package), who is challenging Senator Barbara Boxer, who has served three terms in the Senate, and has long been a liberal champion!

Whitman spent approximately $80 million of her own money to win the GOP nomination over an opponent who ONLY spent about $25 million! 🙂 This is again proof of the need to limit private spending in politics, which has become an epidemic! One has to wonder how a person as rich as Whitman can possibly understand the problems of average Americans! Whitman has painted herself in a very right wing corner, and one has to be creative to figure out how she expects to win a state that has long been one of the most liberal in the nation!

Brown not only served as Governor for two terms, but also ran for President in 1976, 1980, and 1992.  He has also, at different times been Mayor of Oakland and California Attorney General, his most recent position. While Brown has long been considered quite weird by many, he has constantly been in public life for nearly forty years, and has always remained popular with voters. His earlier experiences make him far better qualified to run the state than a novice politico with corporate experience who has never had to deal with real life government issues!

Carly Fiorina had lots of troubles with the Board of Hewlett Packard and was forced out in 2005.  She went on to be an adviser to Senator John McCain in his 2008 Presidential campaign, although causing some controversy by some remarks she made, losing her close contact with McCain as a result!

Barbara Boxer has never been known to cut back on her outspokenness, so therefore is controversial.   However,  her heart is always in the right place, and her seniority is something California is unlikely to wish to lose! And since Fiorina is running a hard line conservative campaign, again, it is not likely that California is going to go all the way to the Far Right!

One has to remember the importance of the Latino vote, and since it is a large portion of the voting population in California, to project a victory for Whitman and Fiorina over Brown and Boxer would seem to be a bad bet! LOL 🙂

Jerry Brown Governor Of California Again 28 Years Later?

Ronald Leave a comment

It seems more and more likely that former California Governor Jerry Brown (1975-1983), who also ran for the Presidential nomination in 1976, 1980, and 1992, served as Oakland Mayor, and is now Attorney General, will be the next Governor of California at age 71, making him the oldest governor, as well as its youngest governor at age 35!

This is due to the fact that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has withdrawn from the race in which he was the only announced Democratic candidate! Brown is unlikely to have a divisive primary, and his chances of defeating former Ebay CEO Meg Whitman or two other GOP candidates seem excellent, particularly with Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger extremely unpopular as California struggles through the devastating effect of the recession on the nation’s largest state.

When the biography of Jerry Brown is finally written at some point in the future, it will be a long and fascinating story of how a man could accomplish all of the many roles that Jerry Brown has filled in his long career in politics!

California Politics For 2010 Governorship And Senate Race

Ronald Leave a comment

California, our largest state with 12 percent of the national population, and deeply affected by the Great Recession, is a microcosm of American politics, and the upcoming races for Governor and Senator are fascinating.

The Republican party will see combative races between relatively unknown conservatives, who have no chance of winning these races, and two well known CEOs of technology companies and both female, but without political experience–Meg Whitman of Ebay for Governor and Carly Fiorina of Hewlett Packard for Senator.

Without any political experience except for backing John McCain for President last year, these two women may have a tough time even being nominated, but even when nominated over their more conservative opponents, the chances of either of them winning a state wide race seem astronomical, despite the tormenting economic conditions faced in the state, where Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is consumed with massive debt problems as he finishes his last year in office in 2010.

Former Governor Jerry Brown and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom are locked in a battle, which seems to favor Brown, now the state Attorney General, but highlighted by Bill Clinton’s endorsement of Newsom, primarily because of Brown’s bruising challenge of Clinton’s primary race for President in 1992, demonstrating that Bill Clinton does not forget when people have wronged him. The odds would still be on Brown, despite his flaky background when Governor from 1975-1983, and his three runs for President in 1976, 1980, and 1992. He may very well go from being the youngest Governor in California history to its oldest, returning to the job he had 28-36 years ago by the time he would become Governor again in January 2011. Newsom faces the controversy over supporting and promoting gay marriage, which has now been rejected by California voters in the referendum last November, but is young, vigorous and handsome and a sign of the future in American politics, so cannot be ruled out.

Meanwhile, Senator Barbara Boxer, while controversial since her election to the Senate in 1992, is still very likely to be reelected. What is clear in both the gubernatorial and senatorial races is the reality of possibly the highest amount of money spent ever, except in a presidential race.

Even if the Democrats lose seats in the Senate and some governorships nationally, they are likely to keep the Senate seat of Boxer and gain the gubernatorial seat of Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, who should be relieved when he no longer has the burden of what is an impossible job–governing California, the eighth largest economy in the world!

Two Corporate Women And California Politics

Ronald Leave a comment

California, a strong Democratic state, has the interesting scenario of two GOP women, both corporate leaders, running for Governor and Senator in 2010.

Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay, is running for Governor, and Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett Packard, is challenging Barbara Boxer for her Senate seat.

Former Governor and present Attorney General Jerry Brown and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom are the leading Democratic candidates for Governor.

It is very hard to imagine either GOP woman winning statewide office, particularly Fiorina, who had a controversial tenure at Hewlett Packard and became a center of criticism as an adviser to John McCain in the 2008 presidential race because of some of her utterances.

But even with the crisis atmosphere in California government, it seems doubtful that the state would hand over governing to Meg Whitman over Jerry Brown in particular, who despite his long and controversial career, remains very popular as a populist type leader in the Golden State.

Certainly, a lot of money and effort will be utilized to try to accomplish what seems to be impossible–two GOP women in top positions in California. Were either or both to accomplish their goals, they would have to be added to the list of possible Republican presidential nominees in 2012 or 2016. But don’t hold your breath! 🙂