Despite spending like a drunken sailor in the primary Whitman plans to campaign on a traditional Republican platform of fiscal conservatism. There’s nothing like hard work, determination, principled stands and personal Silicon Valley fortunes to win statewide elections in California — just ask former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who won their Republican primaries Tuesday for governor and U.S. senator, respectively.
Fiorina, who dipped her toe into politics as a top economic adviser to unsuccessful 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain outspent opponent Chuck Devore more than 3 to 1, spending $7 million on her road to victory. But Whitman spent a record-breaking $81 million to best Steve Poizner in the Republican primary for governor. Both funded their campaigns primarily with their own money (more than $5 million from Fiorina, $70 million-plus from Whitman).
“Career politicians in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., be warned because you now face your biggest nightmare,” Whitman in her victory speech Tuesday night. “Two businesswomen who know how to create jobs, balance budgets and get things done.”
But to get the chance, these captains of industry might have to fund general election campaigns that could make billionaire Michael Bloomberg — who spent $108 million, the vast majority his own money, to become New York City Mayor for the third time — seem thrifty by comparison.
Despite spending like a drunken sailor to earn the right to run for governor as a Republican, Whitman plans a traditional Republican platform of fiscal conservatism as she faces veteran upstart Jerry Brown.
California, estimated to be the world’s eighth-largest economy, has been in trouble for years due to a mix of controversial factors (the real estate bubble’s effect on a sprawling state, Enron’s artificial energy crisis following Republicans’ deregulation of electricity in the ’90s, immigration, tax/spend shortfalls due in part to the recession, all the way back to the infamous Prop 13, which capped property taxes in 1978).
Add these institutional woes to the general economic malaise and it would seem almost inescapably logical for state Republicans to turn to experienced Silicon Valley executives for answers.
Whitman, who like Schwarzenegger had never run for elected office before, was an early favorite against Poizner, but for a time the California Insurance Commissioner was in a statistical tie with his well-heeled opponent.
Meanwhile, the Sarah Palin-endorsed Fiorina, who oversaw HP’s merger with Compaq, widely viewed as a failure, had to spend far less — under $7 million — to oust Tom Campbell, in part by painting him as a demon sheep (video to the right). She intends to run on a jobs-creation and tax-reduction platform against longtime incumbent, Democrat Barbara Boxer.
