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"Meg 2010, Building a New California," the glossy 40-plus page "policy agenda" for former eBay CEO and GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, is so slick that it sat on my desk for weeks before I could finish it. I would pick it up, think that like her candidacy, it is overly packaged, and toss it back on the pile of papers that litter my desk. It does a great job of laying out California's financial woes and suggesting possible reforms - but it leaves out how she'll get things done in Sacramento. I could not help but think about Meg...

California voters will likely be asked in the November general election if the state's greenhouse gas law should be put on hold for rosier economic times.

Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman traveled remarkably similar paths to becoming candidates for governor of California. Born and educated in other states, they made their way to California's Silicon Valley and stunning success – he in adapting GPS technology to cell phones, she in creating a new retail marketplace in the ether. Both came late to politics but, not surprisingly, adopted the Silicon Valley model of capitalistic, but pragmatic, social moderation. Both had that image, one potentially salable to the state's fickle electorate, as they began to seek the Republican nomination. Billionaire Whitman opted for political blitzkrieg, spending tens of...

SAN JOSE – Trying to climb back from a double-digit deficit in polls, Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner used virtually every opportunity to attack front-runner Meg Whitman in their second and final scheduled debate Sunday night. Poizner, the state insurance commissioner, assailed Whitman from the outset by questioning her investments with embattled Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs and attempting to connect her to high-profile Democrats. The hourlong debate at the Tech Museum in San Jose was marked by sharp barbs over which one had stronger conservative credentials. "Who are you, really?" Poizner said to Whitman. "The Republican base is looking...

The Republican Meg Whitman, running for governor in California said Arizona is taking the wrong approach....

"As a band of noisy nurses derided her as "Queen Meg," Republican gubernatorial front-runner Meg Whitman brought a quartet of GOP heavy-hitters to the Peninsula on Friday night to raise a half-million dollars for her candidacy. U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former Secretary of State George Shultz praised the former eBay CEO as a smart and pragmatic woman who would keep California from plunging over a cliff. "She can get the job done," said Shultz, now a fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution."

National Republican leaders lined up behind GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman at a $1,000-a-plate fundraiser Friday night, with stars such as U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz joining Whitman on the stage of the Sofitel Hotel in Redwood City. The event, however, hit a few bumps before it got started, with a running protest organized by the California Nurses Association crashing the fundraiser. Dozens of demonstrators, many wearing blond wigs modeled after Whitman's cut, surprised the well-dressed attendees by descending from the hotel's...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) ― Republican gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman wrapped up a week of fundraising Friday with help from some big GOP names while facing protests about the amount of money she is spending on her quest for California's highest office. Whitman's political mentor, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, joined her at a donors-only luncheon in Sacramento, where tickets started at $1,000 and went up to $25,900. In the evening, Whitman ended her weeklong fundraising tour at a gala in Redwood City with Romney, former Republican presidential nominee John McCain, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former Secretary of State...

Whitman gave $8,000 to Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer's reelection effort in 2003, a total that includes a contribution to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Along with 16 other tech leaders, she signed a letter that said, "Barbara Boxer is a courageous leader and friend of California's technology industry." Poizner wrote checks for a total of at least $21,000 forAl Gore's campaign, Gore's recount expenses, and the Democratic National Committee in 2000. Here are the excuses each candidate offers for being generous with the wrong people, starting with Whitman – who was CEO of eBay when she made the donation. "Meg...

A fundraiser for Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman today at the Sutter Club in Sacramento drew the second installment of the nurses union's traveling Queen Meg protest road show, which debuted last night in Beverly Hills. As Whitman, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and their supporters met in the club, several dozen nurses, state employees and others made a ruckus on the sidewalk, holding signs reading "Queen Meg, Rich Enough to Rule! 2010." Sacramento resident Renee Lee, a call center representative at the Franchise Tax Board who participated, said she objected to Whitman's calls to cut 40,000 state worker positions,...

With Republican Meg Whitman poised to spend a record $150 million on her gubernatorial bid this election year, Democrats will be counting more than ever on a reliable and powerful ally to pull them through what promises to be a bruising campaign. The state's unions promise to jump into the election with extra gusto this year, as tens of thousands of members get set to knock on voters' doors, work phone banks and otherwise attempt to neutralize the flood of TV and radio ads Whitman will unleash if she wins the Republican nomination. In other words, "It's people vs. money,"...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Several Republican heavyweights will join gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman in California for a series of campaign fundraisers. Her political mentor and previous boss, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, will join Whitman at events this week in Irvine, Los Angeles, Sacramento and Redwood City. She also will be joined at some of the events by former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. John McCain.

Meg Whitman has been running up the score in her California GOP gubernatorial primary against Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner. To date, the former eBay CEO poured over $56 million into her campaign compared to Mr. Poizner's $17.5 million. Ms. Whitman has jammed the airwaves with ads attacking Mr. Poizner's conservative credentials. Mr. Poizner faces a nearly 50-point deficit in the polls with just two months to go until the primary. Rather than conceding, Mr. Poizner has launched an aggressive tit-for-tat campaign. His latest ad links Ms. Whitman to just about everything California conservatives disdain: amnesty, ObamaCare, Barbara Boxer, abortion, TARP...

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown on Saturday challenged his potential GOP rivals to an unprecedented bipartisan debate before the state's June primary,

This is a site that compares the three leading candidates for California governor by listing their positions on the issues.

No single mortal will be able to match Meg-a-millions Whitman's cash outflow in the in the California guv race, but another unions-and-pals independent expenditure group is gearing up to take her on in the general election. For starters, each of the three unions at the forefront of Working Families 2010 is kicking in $1 million each, Bob Balgenorth, president of the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California (SBCTC), told us. "It will probably go more than that," he said. Plus there's another $1 million -- and more to come if needed, we hear -- from supermarket magnate and...

GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner, well behind in the polls, has begun airing an ad linking rival Meg Whitman to people and issues unpopular with state Republican voters. Following is the text of the ad and an analysis by Bee Political Editor Amy Chance:TEXT: "Is Meg Whitman your kind of Republican? She supports Obama's amnesty for illegal aliens. Like Schwarzenegger, will continue taxpayer-funded benefits to illegals. A skyrocketing cost under Obamacare. For 28 years Whitman refused to vote Republican. But she contributed to, and campaigned, for Barbara Boxer. Like Boxer, Whitman supports taxpayer-funded abortion. Whitman even supported the disastrous bank...

Clint Reilly, who ran Kathleen Brown's campaign for governor in 1994 -- and lost to Republican incumbent Pete Wilson -- says her brother, Jerry Brown, is in danger of suffering the same fate this year. The former two-term governor who's now California's attorney general is the presumed Democratic nominee for governor. He'll most likely will face Republican Meg Whitman in November. Whitman, the billionaire former head of eBay, has indicated she's willing to spend as much as $150 million of her own money. She is already approaching half that level with two months still remaining in the primary campaign. And...

Surprise! Billionaire Meg Whitman's campaign won't go broke after all. Whitman, the front-runner for the Republican nomination for governor, will announce today that she contributed $20 million more to her war chest late Monday, the Mercury News has learned. That means the former eBay chief executive has donated $59 million to her campaign so far, with two months to go before the primary and seven months left before the general election. The $39 million Whitman donated previously had already set a California political record for self-funding. But her ubiquitous radio and TV ad campaign led to her spending $27.2 million...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline)-Republican California gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman leads Democrat Jerry Brown in the race to be the Golden State's next chief executive, a poll released today indicates.