CA Gov: Whitman has spent $119 million

[WI_DEM]

Former eBay CEO-turned-politician Meg Whitman has spent an astonishing $119 million of her personal fortune on her first-time campaign as the Republican nominee for governor in California, new campaign filings show.

The figures shatter the previous record, set just last year by longtime self-funder and fellow businessman New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, of $109 million, in his bid to capture a third term.


And Whitman is not done yet - she still has just under seven weeks to go in her campaign against Democratic nominee Jerry Brown, the current state attorney general who has only just started airing ads after spending the summer using independent expenditure groups as his equalizer against the Republican's money juggernaut.

According to a report by the Center for Responsive Politics, "Whitman's self-financed spending total — $119 million and counting — utterly dwarfs that of any self-funded candidate who's competed at the federal level, running either for a congressional seat or the presidency



Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42305.html#ixzz0znLfZJpr

[Kdillard]

1. Sickening. It looks like she may buy this race if California

doesn't come through for Jerry.

[FBaggins]

2. The classic question is why someone would spend $100 million+

To win a job that pays $125,000/yr?

[Kdillard]

6. Power.

[GSLevel9]

8. not so much...

more ego than power. Think personal fulfillment.

[Cognitive_Resonance]

3. Amazing. Not too many years ago that would have been an astounding sum for a presidential bid. nt

[flamingdem]

4. She is a nightmare for California

Brown needs to be relentless

[NBachers]

5. She follows me everywhere I go, haranguing and harassing me. Make Her Stop!

[Freddie Stubbs]

7. She is making Al Checchi look like a cheapskate

[wiggs]

9. Brown is not being Brown. He's got to be more creative in getting airtime. He's got

a few commercials out now (pleasant and not memorable...no talk about Whitman negatives). He has to be thinking outside the box, push for participation online, mobilize grass roots events and volunteers, be different, talk about how the last thing we need now in this age of corporate royalty is a billionaire queen....etc.

He can be really effective and charismatic. Maybe he's waiting for the debates to lay it on the line....