Meg Whitman, Hewlett-Packard Executive, Hits the Trail... again

[Benny B]

Meg Whitman Eye's Senate Run
by Cody Nagel

After losing $160 million dollars of her own money, Meg Whitman is at it again. Reports are flying across the Internet this morning that Meg Whitman is eyeing a 2012 Senate run against Democratic incumbent Dianne Feinstein. The move has come as a surprise to many political analysts, and has California Democratic operatives licking at their chops for a chance to face the infamous failed gubernatorial candidate.

 As for my personal take on this, let's just say, huh? Apparently Whitman did not get the message that the voters of California sent her a few weeks ago. No matter how much money she pours into these failed power grabs it seems Meg has forgot one thing, the message has to resonate with voters and her message does not. California is a odd political state for any candidate. With one of the highest populations in the country California has also earned a reputation for having one of the most complex election maps.
 
My advice for Meg would be to do what all other failed Republican candidates do. Get a job with Fox News. It has worked wonders for Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee, just to name a few.

Why doesn't this broad just hold a public bonfire to burn up another $100 million?

[BayGBM]

Former Gov. candidate Meg Whitman to pay housekeeper Nicky Diaz $5500 after wage dispute

Closing out a chapter which roiled her GOP gubernatorial campaign for weeks -- and became a turning point in her race against Democrat Jerry Brown -- billionaire former eBay CEO Meg Whitman has agreed to pay $5500 to Nicky Diaz Santillan, who worked as her undocumented former housekeeper for nine years.

SFGate.com's Shaky Hand Productions was there when both sides showed up for the two hour conference today at the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement in San Jose. Dr. Griffith Harsh, Whitman's neurosurgeon husband, came to the hearing with attorney Dennis Brown, and Diaz was accompanied by celebrity attorney Gloria Allred, who represented her on the matter.

Both sides declared victory at the finish.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/nov05election/detail?entry_id=77259&tsp=1

[Dos Equis]

lol.  Victory.  lol . . . .

[BayGBM]

One expensive housekeeper
Meg Whitman will pay Nicandra Diaz Santillan $5,500 in back pay, but the episode with the former housekeeper was much more costly to Whitman than that.

It is particularly rich — pardon the expression — that Meg Whitman this week tied up one of the remaining loose ends of her gubernatorial campaign by agreeing to pay her former housekeeper $5,500.

Whitman, you'll remember, spent more of her own money in her race for governor than any candidate for any office in American history. And she lost. There are plenty of explanations for that, but one has particular salience: her dramatic rejection by Latinos, California's fastest-growing, soon-to-be-majority ethnic group.

Whitman, a Republican, had hoped to fare much better among Latinos, but her efforts were stymied in part by a late-campaign surprise that knocked her badly off message and blunted her outreach. On Sept. 29, her former housekeeper, Nicandra Diaz Santillan, appeared at a Los Angeles news conference and charged that Whitman had underpaid her and then fired her when informed that she was in the country illegally. Whitman fumbled for a response, and ultimately succeeded mainly in convincing hardcore illegal immigrant haters that she was weak for not having the woman deported, and simultaneously convincing Latinos that she was cruel for firing someone she said she regarded as a member of her extended family. Spanish-language radio leaped on the Diaz Santillan allegations; Whitman's popularity among Latinos sank. In the end, only 13% of California's Latino voters backed her.

Now, after a three-hour deliberation before the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, the issue of back pay has been resolved. Whitman did not attend the hearing, though her husband did. Afterward, Whitman's spokesman, Tucker Bounds, reached into his metaphor bag to describe the significance of the controversy. "It's a political soap opera," he told the San Jose Mercury News, "that has drawn its curtains."

But perhaps it didn't have to end the way it did. Whitman, whose net worth is estimated at $1.3 billion, spent more than $144 million to convince Californians that she deserved to be their governor, even though she had no political background and had not even bothered voting for much of her life. On election day, about 4 million Californians cast ballots for her, meaning that she spent about $36 per vote. Maybe if she'd simply paid Diaz Santillan the $5,500 she owed her in the first place — the price of a mere 152 more votes — she would have won.

Throughout the campaign, Whitman argued that her experience as a CEO made her ready to handle California's challenges; that her knowledge of how to run a business made her capable of running a state. If so, her legacy may be a lesson to chief executives more than to politicians: It's smart to spend a little in order to save a lot, and it's bad business to shortchange an employee.

Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times

[Hugo Chavez]

Bay, any respect you had in this forum is gone... take a hike jerkoff.

[Soul Crusher]

A a twink, I think he is scared of powerful women.

[BayGBM]

Bay, any respect you had in this forum is gone... take a hike jerkoff.

I'll ignore your posts if you ignore mine, deal?

[Soul Crusher]

I'll ignore your posts if you ignore mine, deal?

You fairies really are an emotional bunch who hold a grudge no?

[Hugo Chavez]

I'll ignore your posts if you ignore mine, deal?

no, I'll fucking happily mock your dumb ass and you can do whatever you want...  I can't believe the level you lowered yourself to...  Zero respect for your ass and yea, I know, you don't care...

[Hugo Chavez]

You fairies really are an emotional bunch who hold a grudge no?

Bay was cool when he was just focused on outing real hypocrites, but this latest bullshit,... lower than low...  WTF was he thinking...

[BayGBM]

no, I'll fucking happily mock your dumb ass and you can do whatever you want...  I can't believe the level you lowered yourself to...  Zero respect for your ass and yea, I know, you don't care...

Ok, I'll just ignore you. 

[BayGBM]

Whitman gave another $2.6 million on Election Day
(11-17) 11:48 PST Sacramento, Calif. (AP) --

Defeated Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman gave her campaign $2.6 million on Election Day, adding to what already was the most expensive campaign for governor in U.S. history.

The disclosure was filed Tuesday with the secretary of state's office. It brings the total amount spent by the billionaire former eBay CEO to nearly $144.2 million from her personal fortune.

Whitman also raised about $30 million from donors in her first run for office.

She lost to Democrat Jerry Brown. He previously reported raising $37 million, although he also benefited from roughly $30 million in union spending.

Final campaign finance reports must be filed by Jan. 31, 2011.

[BayGBM]

Whitman's maid story was pushed by nurses union
Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
 
One of the most tantalizing mysteries in California's 2010 gubernatorial election involved the connection between one of the state's poorest women and one of its wealthiest.

How did an undocumented, Mexican-born housekeeper, Nicandra Diaz Santillan, end up in the national spotlight, boldly confronting her former boss, billionaire GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman?

The short answer: with the help of a union.

The longer answer is that at the height of the gubernatorial race, as campaign ads blared on Spanish-language television, the aggrieved housekeeper was determined to tell Californians her story of being abruptly fired by Whitman after nearly a decade on the job.

In early September, Diaz turned to a friend who knew a member of the powerful, Oakland-based California Nurses Association, The Chronicle has learned.

The union called in two lawyers for Diaz: Marc Van Der Hout, a longtime immigration attorney in San Francisco, and celebrity feminist attorney Gloria Allred, a fierce workplace rights litigator who arranged for Diaz to tell her story in a live-webcast news conference.

Asked to confirm her organization's role in Diaz's case, Rose Ann DeMoro, the nurses union executive director, said Monday, "I won't deny it, but I prefer not to comment directly on the case."

Whitman, a former eBay CEO, has alleged that Diaz was used by unions backing her Democratic opponent, Jerry Brown, and engaged in "the politics of personal destruction." Her campaign said the California Nurses Association's role was suspected after its spokesman, Chuck Idelson, turned up at a widely watched Diaz news conference - and refused comment on the matter.

But several sources close to the matter, speaking on condition that they not be named, have now confirmed the union's role in Diaz's emergence, a moment labor leaders hailed as a watershed in the immigrant-rights movement - and political opponents have called a classic campaign dirty trick.

The housekeeper and mother of three would not comment for this story, and has not given interviews to the news media outside of the news conferences at Allred's side.

Devastated by dismissal

But sources familiar with the matter say Diaz, a Union City resident who has lived in the country for more than a decade, was emotionally and financially devastated by her sudden firing by Whitman in 2009, for whom she had worked since 2000.

Diaz made her decision to come forward with her story as Whitman's gubernatorial campaign was in high gear; the wealthy candidate, who touted herself as "tough as nails" on illegal immigration before the June primary, had blanketed the airwaves with millions of dollars in ads through the summer of 2010 - including ads on Spanish-language television.

But in the same period, the California Nurses Association - which endorsed Brown - mounted Spanish-language ads likening Whitman's immigration policy to former Gov. Pete Wilson's, and portraying Whitman as the wealthy "Queen Meg" candidate trying to "buy" California. At one point, the union sent 1,500 nurses to march outside the same Atherton mansion where Diaz had worked.

Wanted representation

Diaz "was aware of us, and our protests of Whitman," said one union insider closely involved with the issue. "She wanted legal representation - and she wanted justice. She wanted to be able to tell her story."

One union insider said the first reaction to news that one of Whitman's former housekeepers wanted to go public was an elated "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

But, "we were concerned about her immigration status - and concerned about her," the source said.

Diaz was carefully vetted and interviewed by union insiders, and counseled "for days" regarding the implications of going public as an undocumented worker, sources said.

But "she really wanted to do it," said one source. "She was like steel."

Diaz insisted Whitman always knew she was undocumented; she said Whitman had been contacted by government officials regarding problems with her Social Security number.

Whitman insisted she hired Diaz through an agency and always believed her to be a legal resident; when she learned she was not, she had no choice but to let her go, Whitman said.

But the nurses union leadership did for Diaz what Whitman did not - they got her legal help.

Diaz's emergence was a turning point in Whitman's ambitious 18-month gubernatorial campaign - one in which the candidate personally invested $145 million, and became the largest self-funded candidacy in American history.

News conference a factor

Pollsters say one key factor in helping to derail Whitman's carefully planned drive - and the resulting 13-point landslide victory for Brown - was Diaz herself.

In the housekeeper's tearful televised testimony during an explosive news conference at Allred's side - one of the most searing moments of the gubernatorial race - Diaz said she was treated "like garbage," and coldly fired after nine years with a voice mail message from Whitman: "You don't know me, and I don't know you."

Last week, Whitman and her husband, Dr. Griffith Harsh, agreed to pay $5,500 to close out Diaz's claim for unpaid back wages, though they admitted no guilt.

Even in the wake of calls by candidate Whitman and conservative pundits like Bill O'Reilly for her deportation, Diaz is now pursuing an application to become a permanent legal resident, Van Der Hout said last week.

Diaz "is not in hiding ... and she is not fearing arrest," he said. "She has a compelling case because of her long history in the United States and her family ties ... and I am optimistic that she will eventually obtain lawful status."

Labor groups have now begun a fund to help support the still-unemployed worker, and California Labor Federation head Art Pulaski recently hailed the undocumented housekeeper as a hero who might now serve as a galvanizing force in the movement for comprehensive immigration reform.

DeMoro, in an open letter to Diaz this month published by National Nurses United, publicly thanked the housekeeper for "your courage in taking a difficult stand that undoubtedly changed history."

[BayGBM]

Whitman paid a high price for Latino distrust of GOP
A former strategist says the candidate lost so conclusively because her party continues to alienate the state's fastest-growing voter group.
George Skelton

Meg Whitman's former lead spokesman is starting to speak up about the candidate's losing race for governor. And he's shouting about the need for Republicans to stop the demagoguery over illegal immigration.

Senior advisor Rob Stutzman isn't exactly spilling his guts about the former EBay chief's spectacular thumping. The billionaire lost to low-budget Jerry Brown by 54% to 41%, despite spending a record $160 million-plus, roughly $142 million of it her own money.

But the veteran Republican strategist is blaming the mini-landslide size of Whitman's loss on some ugly dust-ups over illegal immigration that alienated Latinos from the GOP.

On Nov. 2, a record 22% of the California electorate was Latino. They voted heavily for Democrat Brown — somewhere between 64% and 80%, depending on which poll you believe.

Whatever the real figure, it should scare the GOP because Latinos are by far California's fastest-growing voter group.

"Republicans need to understand that they live in suburbs with second-generation Mexican American neighbors whose parents came here and worked in agriculture and the service industries and are very proud" of their families' success, Stutzman says.

"They sit around at cocktail parties and they listen on talk shows and hear their parents referred to as 'illegals.' And we wonder why these people don't want to register as Republicans."

Stutzman, 42, is no RINO — what right-wing ideologues deride as a Republican in Name Only — even if he did serve as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's first communications director. His party credentials include communications jobs with former Atty. Gen. Dan Lundgren and state Senate Republicans. He also ran a successful 2000 initiative campaign to ban same-sex marriage.

Don't get him started on illegal immigration. He favors regulating immigration but detests reviling immigrants.

"We've got to stop looking at it as purely a legal issue," he says. "If you want to make it a moral issue, we should appreciate the virtue of men and women trying to make the best life possible for their families.

"As long as radio talk show guys demagogue on the issue and Republicans are cowed and not willing to stand up to it, nothing's going to change."

Meaning party candidates will continue to lose statewide elections. In November, it was a clean Democratic sweep.

"This is our circular firing squad until we get beyond the rhetoric and slogans and we start to show empathy," Stutzman continues.

"Didn't we say the same about the Irish and Italians 100 years ago? 'They smell funny and drink too much.' In California, we need to turn the page."

But there's a ballot initiative afoot in California to duplicate Arizona's controversial crackdown on illegal immigrants. It's sponsored by a former member of the state GOP's executive committee, Michael Erickson.

Stutzman blames the Arizona law for helping to motivate California Latinos to turn out "and vote very anti-Republican."

And he accuses Whitman's Republican primary opponent, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, of being "really reckless" in inserting illegal immigration as the "front and center" issue. "No question we were hurt."

OK, time out.

It was, after all, Whitman who ran a TV ad featuring former Gov. Pete Wilson — a devil incarnate for many Latinos — promising that she would be "tough as nails" on illegal immigration.

It was Whitman who endorsed the Arizona law — but only for Arizona, she weakly insisted, not for California. Many Latinos saw that as a distinction without a difference — and ominous.

And it was Whitman who proclaimed that she wouldn't allow admission to community colleges or state universities for high school grads who had been carted to California illegally as children by their parents. That wasn't quite the show of "empathy" that Stutzman calls for.

All that began as Whitman was trying to protect her right flank from the extremist Poizner. I always thought she paid too much attention to the lightweight. But Stutzman says Whitman couldn't risk ignoring him because at one point he pulled within single digits of her.

Big waste of money and potential Latino votes. Whitman wound up winning the GOP nomination by nearly 38 points.

Fortunately for the likes of Whitman, there won't be any party nominations starting in 2012 when a new open primary system takes effect. "Somebody like her, I would advise to take a serious look at running as a nonpartisan," Stutzman says.

The primary campaign baggage became too burdensome in the general election. And the final straw was the disclosure — aided by the Brown-friendly nurses union — that Whitman for nine years had employed an illegal immigrant maid.

After having learned that the housekeeper was undocumented, Whitman said, she had fired her — very coldly, it seemed.

The question that millions have since asked is why didn't Whitman and her high-priced team of consultants break news of the maid themselves, in their own way and time, minimizing the political fallout.

Stutzman doesn't want to talk about it.

But bet on this: Neither he nor other senior advisors knew about the maid. Only Whitman and her tight inner circle did. And even if the strategists had known, they wouldn't have revealed it while Poizner was on the prowl. They would have, however, immediately after the primary.

Blame that one on Whitman and the naivete of a first-time candidate.

"We still wouldn't have won," Stutzman says. "But it would have been closer.

"The [Democratic] math was insurmountable. California Democrats rallied around the president. We had difficulty keeping the campaign focused on jobs and the economy. Brown and his union allies kept [attacking Whitman's] character….

"Brown was more disciplined than I thought. I tip my hat to those guys."

And until the GOP stops frightening Latinos, there'll likely never be any Republican elected governor.

[Benny B]

Whitman paid a high price for Latino distrust of GOP
A former strategist says the candidate lost so conclusively because her party continues to alienate the state's fastest-growing voter group.
George Skelton

Meg Whitman's former lead spokesman is starting to speak up about the candidate's losing race for governor. And he's shouting about the need for Republicans to stop the demagoguery over illegal immigration.

Senior advisor Rob Stutzman isn't exactly spilling his guts about the former EBay chief's spectacular thumping. The billionaire lost to low-budget Jerry Brown by 54% to 41%, despite spending a record $160 million-plus, roughly $142 million of it her own money.

But the veteran Republican strategist is blaming the mini-landslide size of Whitman's loss on some ugly dust-ups over illegal immigration that alienated Latinos from the GOP.

On Nov. 2, a record 22% of the California electorate was Latino. They voted heavily for Democrat Brown — somewhere between 64% and 80%, depending on which poll you believe.

Whatever the real figure, it should scare the GOP because Latinos are by far California's fastest-growing voter group.

"Republicans need to understand that they live in suburbs with second-generation Mexican American neighbors whose parents came here and worked in agriculture and the service industries and are very proud" of their families' success, Stutzman says.

"They sit around at cocktail parties and they listen on talk shows and hear their parents referred to as 'illegals.' And we wonder why these people don't want to register as Republicans."

Stutzman, 42, is no RINO — what right-wing ideologues deride as a Republican in Name Only — even if he did serve as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's first communications director. His party credentials include communications jobs with former Atty. Gen. Dan Lundgren and state Senate Republicans. He also ran a successful 2000 initiative campaign to ban same-sex marriage.

Don't get him started on illegal immigration. He favors regulating immigration but detests reviling immigrants.

"We've got to stop looking at it as purely a legal issue," he says. "If you want to make it a moral issue, we should appreciate the virtue of men and women trying to make the best life possible for their families.

"As long as radio talk show guys demagogue on the issue and Republicans are cowed and not willing to stand up to it, nothing's going to change."

Meaning party candidates will continue to lose statewide elections. In November, it was a clean Democratic sweep.

"This is our circular firing squad until we get beyond the rhetoric and slogans and we start to show empathy," Stutzman continues.

"Didn't we say the same about the Irish and Italians 100 years ago? 'They smell funny and drink too much.' In California, we need to turn the page."

But there's a ballot initiative afoot in California to duplicate Arizona's controversial crackdown on illegal immigrants. It's sponsored by a former member of the state GOP's executive committee, Michael Erickson.

Stutzman blames the Arizona law for helping to motivate California Latinos to turn out "and vote very anti-Republican."

And he accuses Whitman's Republican primary opponent, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, of being "really reckless" in inserting illegal immigration as the "front and center" issue. "No question we were hurt."

OK, time out.

It was, after all, Whitman who ran a TV ad featuring former Gov. Pete Wilson — a devil incarnate for many Latinos — promising that she would be "tough as nails" on illegal immigration.

It was Whitman who endorsed the Arizona law — but only for Arizona, she weakly insisted, not for California. Many Latinos saw that as a distinction without a difference — and ominous.

And it was Whitman who proclaimed that she wouldn't allow admission to community colleges or state universities for high school grads who had been carted to California illegally as children by their parents. That wasn't quite the show of "empathy" that Stutzman calls for.

All that began as Whitman was trying to protect her right flank from the extremist Poizner. I always thought she paid too much attention to the lightweight. But Stutzman says Whitman couldn't risk ignoring him because at one point he pulled within single digits of her.

Big waste of money and potential Latino votes. Whitman wound up winning the GOP nomination by nearly 38 points.

Fortunately for the likes of Whitman, there won't be any party nominations starting in 2012 when a new open primary system takes effect. "Somebody like her, I would advise to take a serious look at running as a nonpartisan," Stutzman says.

The primary campaign baggage became too burdensome in the general election. And the final straw was the disclosure — aided by the Brown-friendly nurses union — that Whitman for nine years had employed an illegal immigrant maid.

After having learned that the housekeeper was undocumented, Whitman said, she had fired her — very coldly, it seemed.

The question that millions have since asked is why didn't Whitman and her high-priced team of consultants break news of the maid themselves, in their own way and time, minimizing the political fallout.

Stutzman doesn't want to talk about it.

But bet on this: Neither he nor other senior advisors knew about the maid. Only Whitman and her tight inner circle did. And even if the strategists had known, they wouldn't have revealed it while Poizner was on the prowl. They would have, however, immediately after the primary.

Blame that one on Whitman and the naivete of a first-time candidate.

"We still wouldn't have won," Stutzman says. "But it would have been closer.

"The [Democratic] math was insurmountable. California Democrats rallied around the president. We had difficulty keeping the campaign focused on jobs and the economy. Brown and his union allies kept [attacking Whitman's] character….

"Brown was more disciplined than I thought. I tip my hat to those guys."

And until the GOP stops frightening Latinos, there'll likely never be any Republican elected governor.

And the repube supporters on this board think the GOP can just kill The Dream Act and not pay a political price just because they hate Latinos.

Good luck in 2012, dirt bags! 

[BayGBM]

This is why Jerry Brown won. 
This and the fact that Meg was a flawed candidate from day one. 


Jerry Brown's budget cuts start in his own office
Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writer

On his fifth day in office, Gov. Jerry Brown announced that he is returning $7 million to the state treasury through a slew of cuts, including shaving the governor's office budget by 25 percent.

California is facing a deficit of up to $28 billion over the next 17 months, and Brown will unveil his budget proposal Monday - a plan that is expected to include deep cuts in spending as well as a restructuring of how many government services are delivered.

On Friday, the new governor announced a number of budget cuts to offices controlled by the executive branch.

As expected, Brown axed the secretary of education position, an advisory office under the governor that was worth $1.9 million annually. Brown also returned the lion's share of transition funds allocated to him, spending just $120,000 of the $770,000 available.

He also cut $4.5 million from the governor's office's $18 million annual budget, in part by eliminating the office of the first lady. Brown's wife, Anne Gust Brown, has already taken an unpaid position as special counsel to the governor.

"California is facing a huge deficit and it is necessary to find savings throughout all of government," Brown said in a written statement. "We all have to make cuts and I'm starting with my own office."

In order to cut one-quarter from his office's budget, Brown eliminated the position of cabinet secretary and all deputy cabinet secretaries. He cut press and communications staff; closed field offices in San Diego, Riverside and Fresno; and cut the governor's Washington, D.C., office staff. Additionally, as Brown announced in December, he eliminated the office of Laura Chick, the special inspector general appointed by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to audit federal stimulus spending in California. That position was temporary and set to expire midyear.

Brown's spending reductions were praised by tax watchdogs, including the California Taxpayers' Association.

"The state definitely needs to economize in every agency and every department, and this is a great first step," said David Kline, a spokesman for the association.

[Option D]

This is why Jerry Brown won. 
This and the fact that Meg was a flawed candidate from day one. 


Jerry Brown's budget cuts start in his own office
Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writer

On his fifth day in office, Gov. Jerry Brown announced that he is returning $7 million to the state treasury through a slew of cuts, including shaving the governor's office budget by 25 percent.

California is facing a deficit of up to $28 billion over the next 17 months, and Brown will unveil his budget proposal Monday - a plan that is expected to include deep cuts in spending as well as a restructuring of how many government services are delivered.

On Friday, the new governor announced a number of budget cuts to offices controlled by the executive branch.

As expected, Brown axed the secretary of education position, an advisory office under the governor that was worth $1.9 million annually. Brown also returned the lion's share of transition funds allocated to him, spending just $120,000 of the $770,000 available.

He also cut $4.5 million from the governor's office's $18 million annual budget, in part by eliminating the office of the first lady. Brown's wife, Anne Gust Brown, has already taken an unpaid position as special counsel to the governor.

"California is facing a huge deficit and it is necessary to find savings throughout all of government," Brown said in a written statement. "We all have to make cuts and I'm starting with my own office."

In order to cut one-quarter from his office's budget, Brown eliminated the position of cabinet secretary and all deputy cabinet secretaries. He cut press and communications staff; closed field offices in San Diego, Riverside and Fresno; and cut the governor's Washington, D.C., office staff. Additionally, as Brown announced in December, he eliminated the office of Laura Chick, the special inspector general appointed by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to audit federal stimulus spending in California. That position was temporary and set to expire midyear.

Brown's spending reductions were praised by tax watchdogs, including the California Taxpayers' Association.

"The state definitely needs to economize in every agency and every department, and this is a great first step," said David Kline, a spokesman for the association.

BUMP

[BayGBM]

Is Republican billionaire Meg Whitman planning a political comeback?

California Republican Meg Whitman's failed $150 million-plus drive to become California governor is barely in the rear view mirror -- but her appearance in San Francisco today, the first public gig since the 2010 election, has sparked buzz that she's thinking about a political comeback.

It started when the former eBay CEO scheduled -- not one, but two -- speaking engagements this month, less than 12 weeks from her November election rout by Democrat Jerry Brown.

Whitman will make her debut today at the Harvard Club of San Francisco in a 1 p.m. talk. And like her slated January 31 appearance in San Francisco before the Bay Area Council, which Comrade Joe Garofoli revealed this week, there will be no press coverage allowed -- and an invitation-only crowd. (And just to make sure, the Bay Area Council event has even been removed from the organization's website.)

The Harvard Club of SF appearance is especially exclusive -- open only to young Harvard undergraduate women who graduated from '05-'10, and limited to an audience of just 20. (The $50 tickets have sold out, the website says.)

Rob Stutzman, who served as Whitman's senior advisor in the 2010 campaign, insists the former eBay CEO has no political purpose in the schedule.

"These are just personal appearances connected to requests that came from friends,'' he told us. "Meg is talking to women in business,'' and that's something she's been doing for her entire professional life, he noted.

But is she planning ahead for something else in politics?

"Nothing to announce,'' he said.

Still, on a week in which Whitman's 2010 political team leaders, and even the candidate herself, have declined a prestigious invite from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies to participate in an academic discussion on the 2010 election, there are more questions about what lies ahead for Whitman.

"What she's trying to figure out is what is an appropriate public role for her,'' suggests Hoover Institution research fellow Bill Whalen. "Even though she did lose the election, she was the Republican gubernatorial nominee, and she spent the better part of two years talking about the problems facing California."

"You don't just walk away from that cold turkey,'' Whalen said. "She is probably thinking what does she do next: does she want to be a candidate -- or a speaker?"

Sources say Whitman in the last months has sought a detailed explanation regarding what went wrong in her resounding defeat by Brown. (Especially since, even hours before polls closed, her chief strategist Mike Murphy was on cable TV insisting she was still well within striking distance.)

As one of America's wealthiest women, several in the know suggest she aims to emerge again with a message and a profile on the California politics scene. And fairly soon.

Whalen speculates the GOP billionaire's best move could be as a deep-pocketed backer of ballot measures which could drive the GOP agenda. "Unlike having to run a $150 million campaign and being the star, she could be one of several people involved, give $10 million -- and get an idea passed,'' he said. "It's image rehabilitation.''

But some say other things could be in the cards -- say, a U.S. Senate run.

At least one political consultant said that Whitman's "no media" policy at the two events this month may only remind Californians of some less-than-positive recurring themes in her campaign.

Like this golden oldie Chronicle/SFGate.com Shaky Hand Productions capture of what became a famed media moment, a March 2010 meltdown in Oakland:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid823619053?bctid=71033600001

Whitman's re-emergence may be "a perfect opportunity to begin the rehab process,'' says Sacramento consultant Patrick Dorinson, who writes the CowboyLibertarian.com blog. "But the media will be part of it..and she can have a real conversation with people about, "Boy did I stub my toe when I spent that $150 million."

"Politics is like breaking horses,'' he says. "She can get thrown, but Americans will want to see how she gets back up.''

[BayGBM]

California Runner-Up Bypasses Review of Race
By JESSE McKINLEY

BERKELEY, Calif. — Every four years, the minds — left and right — that brought you the California governor’s race get together for a collegial post-mortem at the University of California, Berkeley, on what they did right and wrong in the campaign. Coffee is served, as is — usually — political dish.

But on Friday, while the event went on as planned, there was one noticeable absence: the campaign of Meg Whitman, the billionaire Republican who spent about $150 million of her own money in a losing effort to Jerry Brown, a Democrat.

Not that the campaign was not invited.

“We approached lots of people through lots of different channels,” said Ethan Rarick, the director of the Robert T. Matsui Center for Politics and Public Service at the university and one of the event’s hosts. “I’m a little perplexed by it, but it’s their call.”

Officials for the Whitman campaign said they simply did not see the point.

“I declined the Berkeley thing in 2003 when I did Arnold’s winning race,” Mike Murphy, a Whitman strategist, said of former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s successful campaign in a recall election. “And I declined this one.”

Still, Ms. Whitman and her consultants took some knocks from other participants on Friday for appearing to dodge the event. And some of the harshest comments came from fellow Republicans.

James Bognet, a strategist for Steve Poizner, whom Ms. Whitman beat in the Republican primary, called her campaign “very bloody” and sometimes unethical, with sharp attacks on his candidate.

“I was going to bring a wood chipper here to represent the Whitman campaign,” he quipped, “but I couldn’t find one.”

Much of the defense of Ms. Whitman was left to Duf Sundheim, a former chairman of the California Republican Party. He said that Ms. Whitman had deliberated long and hard before deciding to run, and that she took the campaign — and its challenges — seriously. But he, too, said mistakes had been made.

“I think they did have certain missteps,” said Mr. Sundheim, mentioning some awkward early interviews and an initial reluctance to engage the press. “Clearly, there’s a steep learning curve here.”

Democrats, who also won statewide races for attorney general (Kamala Harris) and lieutenant governor (Gavin Newsom), had a little more to laugh about.

Asked if there was one thing the Brown campaign would have changed, its spokesman, Sterling Clifford, said, “Nothing.” The Brown campaign manager, Steven M. Glazer, offered “telephone operational training,” an allusion to the recorded conversation, released late in the campaign, of an aide calling Ms. Whitman a “whore” on an open phone line.

Mr. Glazer said Ms. Whitman had been a “very tall pine tree in the primary” but fell easily in the general election.

“She had no root structure,” he said.

Asked why Mr. Brown had worried about Ms. Whitman’s possible strength, Mr. Glazer said, “Uh, cha-ching?”

But Mr. Bognet said her spending power might have backfired, adding that Ms. Whitman’s brand, as it were, eventually became “She’s the one with the money who won’t get off my TV.”

Mr. Sundheim was more blunt, and perhaps even more pessimistic, in a state where his party trails badly in voter registration. “The Republican brand in this state is death,” he said.

For his part, Mr. Rarick said he had held out hope that Ms. Whitman’s representatives would attend for a couple of reasons.

“No. 1, it would make our conference better, a more complete record of the race, for students of politics and history,” he said. “And two, I think personally it would be in their best interest to come and defend themselves.”

[Soul Crusher]

How is that 30 Billion dollar hole working out ?   

[BayGBM]

GOPer Meg Whitman re-emerges, criticizes budget plan by CA Dems and Jerry Brown as lacking "real reform"

Republican billionaire Meg Whitman, who dropped out of sight in 2010 after a record-setting failed $180 million bid for California governor, emerged Wednesday to criticize the new state budget from Democrats and Gov. Jerry Brown as filled with "gimmicks" and lacking "real reform."

"The good news is the people of California are going to avoid a big tax increase,'' the former eBay CEO told Fox News' Neal Cavuto Wednesday. But "it is a political budget without a road map to real reform -- like we know California really needs."

Sounding very much like a candidate, Whitman said the California budget plan "relies on unanticipated revenue'' -- adding that from "where I come from,'' that means it "won't actually materialize."

She said the state budget plan passed by Democrats "has $3.5 billion in gimmicks," and "$10 billion in the cruelest type of cuts'' to higher education and other services. But that's because "we didn't go after pension reform, we didn't go after the size of government,'' she said.

The television appearance by the former eBay CEO, who also jabbed sharply at President Obama Wednesday in the segment on "Your World" hosted by Cavuto, comes as Whitman has taken an increasingly high profile role as a leading adviser, supporter and fundraiser for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney; last week, she attended his big ticket fundraiser in Portola Valley. (Cavuto, however, never mentioned her role in the Romney campaign.)

Whitman told Cavuto that Obama's conference Wednesday gave her "great concern." Said Whitman: "This president ran on the platform of bringing people together, meeting in the middle... and it has not worked out that way at all. There's a big hunger for new leadership..he has not been a good leader on the economy."

As a 2010 gubernatorial candidate in California, Whitman heavily pounded the issue of jobs (her campaign motto was "Jobs are on the Way") and took what some said were controversial positions. Whtiman insisted her proposals on reducing taxes and regulation would produce 2 million new jobs in California in her first term; she also urged cutting 40,000 from the state payrolls to reduce spending, a call that fired up public employee unions and Democrats.

The spot on Cavuto's show marked another step in the billionaire Republican's political re-emergence, a move increasingly evident in the last few weeks.

Whitman's media outreach efforts began in April with series of private lunches with political reporters around the state -- including with reporters from the Chronicle. She's appeared on radio at the invitation of Sacramento-based radio host Eric Hogue, and recently spoke to a charter school in Redwood City about her unsuccessful run against Brown.

Since her defeat by Brown in November, Whitman has taken on new challenges in the business world. She has joined the landmark Menlo Park venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, and is now on the board of Proctor & Gamble, Hewlett Packard, and ZipCar, among others.

Whitman has been open recently about her campaign's failures, including what many say was her reluctance to meet with media -- a factor she has acknowledged served to distance her from many voters who only knew her by advertising.

"I think people didn't get to know me as well as they might have," Whitman told a Redwood City charter school recently, according to the report from the Sacramento Bee. "I actually think I am very warm, friendly, fun, easy to be around," she told them. "And I think most people actually, who came to my events, actually were quite persuaded. I think actually people did in fact quite like me when they met me in person."
 

[BayGBM]

Whitman to replace Apotheker as HP’s CEO
By Hayley Tsukayama

Meg Whitman will reportedly replace Leo Apotheker as Hewlett-Packard’s chief executive, All Things Digital reported Thursday.

Citing multiple unnamed “sources close to the situation,” the report said that the company will officially announce the switch after Wall Street’s closing bell. Apotheker has been HP’s chief executive for just under a year — the company has had seven CEOs since 1999.

Whitman, the former chief executive at eBay, has been working as a consultant since losing her Republican bid to be California’s governor. While earlier reports had indicated that HP’s board would appoint Whitman for a short-term position at its meeting Thursday, All Things Digital’s Kara Swisher said that Whitman will be in for the long haul.

The New York Times reported that HP’s board is troubled to the point of being dysfunctional due to infighting. According to the report, H-P’s board hired Apotheker despite the fact that most of the board had not met him, after the ouster of Mark Hurd as chief executive.

A spokesman for HP declined to comment on the report.

[BayGBM]

Like I said - I am going to pull out a lawn chair with a case of beer and thoroughly enjoy your state imploding when you clowns elect Brown. 

btw, how is that beer going down?  By all accounts Brown is doing a very good job and is poised to be reelected.

[Option D]

btw, how is that beer going down?  By all accounts Brown is doing a very good job and is poised to be reelected.

brace youself for an extremely subjective, opinionated assessment of California, Void of any real facts, but yet, passed on as truths.

i have this "guy" pegged

[BayGBM]

brace youself for an extremely subjective, opinionated assessment of California, Void of any real facts, but yet, passed on as truths.

i have this "guy" pegged