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California
Governor
| CALIFORNIA |
Nov. 2,
2010 Governor |
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Plurality: 1,300,758 votes (12.88 percentage points) CA
Secretary of State
DEMOCRATIC PICKUP Notes: Vying to succeed term-limited Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), Attorney General and former Gov. Jerry Brown (D) defeated former eBay president and CEO Meg Whitman (R) (>). Although Whitman's largely self-funded campaign spent a record $159 million, Brown returned to the office to which he was first elected to in 1974. In the June 8 Republican primary, Whitman and Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner faced off in an expensive campaign (>). The California Fair Political Practices Commission reported that from Jan. 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010, the Whitman campaign spent $99.9 million including $91.1 million of Whitman's own money and the Poizner campaign spent $27.6 million including $24.4 million of his own money (>). Whitman won by 64.4% to 26.7% (>). Meanwhile Brown tallied 84.4% of the vote in the Democratic primary (>). A key turning point in the campaign came on Sept. 29, 2010 when attorney Gloria Allred held a press conference to charge that Whitman had knowingly employed an undocumented housekeeper, Nicky Diaz Santillan, for about nine years before firing her in June 2009 (1,2). Whitman denounced the "political smear" as a "distraction" (>) but her and her campaign's evolving responses to the story badly damaged her prospects of winning. Brown and Whitman engaged in three debates: Sept. 28 - at UC Davis broadcast by KCRA 3 News (>); Oct. 2 - at Fresno State University sponsored by Univision; and Oct. 12 - at Dominican University in San Rafael moderated by NBC News' Tom Brokaw (>). Campaign Managers: Jerry Brown: Steven Glazer Elected City Councilman in Orinda, 2004 and 2008; and elected Mayor of Orinda in 2007. Founder (1989) and principal at Glazer & Associates; managed and advised on campaigns including a number of ballot proposition campaigns. Senior advisor on Kathleen Brown's 1990 campaign for State Treasurer. Press secretary for State Senate Pro Tem David Roberti, 1987-93. Communications director on Committee to Conserve the Courts, the campaign to retain Chief Justice Rose Bird, 1985-86. Ran Assemblyman Gray Davis' 1984 re-election campaign; press secretary for Assemblyman Davis, 1983. Deputy campaign manager on Jerry Brown's 1982 U.S. Senate campaign; first worked for Brown on his 1978 campaign. B.A. from San Diego State University. Born in Sacramento. Meg Whitman: Jillian Hasner (May 2009) Per Jon Fleishman, publisher of FlashReport.org, "...has worked at every major campaign level…for President (Bush-Cheney ‘00 and Bush-Quayle ‘92), Governor (George Voinovich-Ohio; Jeb Bush-Florida); U.S. Senate (Mike Dewine-Ohio; Paul Coverdell-Georgia); U.S. Congress (Rob Portman-Ohio; Steve LaTourette-Ohio), as well as director of corporate and association affairs for the 1996 Republican National Convention. More detail... Florida executive director of Victory 2000, the Bush general election campaign, and started on Bush's primary campaign in Oct. 1999. director of government affairs to Gov. Jeb Bush, Jan.-Sept. 1999; firector of scheduling and events for Gov. Jeb Bush's 1998 campaign. Originally from Ohio. See also: Ruben Navarrette Jr. "How Meg Whitman spent a fortune and lost." CNN, Nov. 3, 2010. Lance Williams. "Meg Whitman Spending: Where Did $160 Million Go?" HuffPost, Nov. 2, 2010. David Graham. "Meg Whitman's Housekeeper Scandal: It's the Cover-Up, Not the Sin, That Matters." Newsweek, Oct. 1, 2010. |
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