Meg Whitman alters campaign ad to clarify residency issue

Meg Whitman's campaign has quietly dropped an inaccurate statement from her inaugural TV ad in which she claimed to have lived in California for "30 years."

As PolitiCal reported Thursday, the Republican candidate for governor first moved to California in 1981 but has not lived here continuously since, settling in Massachusetts for about seven years in the mid-1990s.

"Having come to California in 1981, Meg considers herself to be a 30-year Californian,” campaign spokeswoman Sarah Pompei said in an e-mail Friday. “But we didn't want there to be any confusion, so we made a slight clarification."

Watch the new ad, which began airing statewide today, below:

-- Shane Goldmacher in Sacramento