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Whitman foes launch site to gather intelligence on her

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A group of Democrats seeking to derail Meg Whitman’s candidacy for governor has created an Internet site where people can dish dirt on the former EBay chief – as long as it is factual and well-sourced, the creators say.

The website, www.wikimeg.com, created by a group called Level the Playing Field 2010, is modeled after Wikipedia, where users can contribute their own information. But it offers an alternative to Whitman’s entry in that forum. ‘The Wikipedia page, if you look at it, reads like propaganda from an Eastern Bloc country 20 years ago,’ said Ace Smith, a Democratic consultant who has previously worked with Jerry Brown, the presumed Democratic nominee for governor.

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The site’s founders say it is meant to encourage transparency – ‘to promote the civic discourse,’ said communications strategist Chris Lehane – and reveal information about Whitman’s taxes, her use of a corporate jet and her actions at EBay.

‘We are looking at this as a great experiment in digital democracy,’ Lehane said.

In response, Whitman’s campaign issued a statement from its intern, Marcheta Marshall, a Stanford freshman who said her title is ‘Director, responses to silly media stunts by underfunded Team Brown front groups.’ The statement said:

‘Looks like these guys are pretty worried about Meg. Just like Wikipedia, I’m sure my professors won’t even allow me to use it as a source for my term papers. So why does Jerry Brown’s silly front group think it’s good enough for voters? I know reporters won’t be fooled into promoting made-up information on a gossip site.’

Sean Clegg, campaign manager for Level the Playing Field, said it has about $500,000 as of this week (the group has not yet disclosed to the Secretary of State its contributions). Clegg said people who post to the site will have to include either a legitimate citation or their name – but it wasn’t clear that the moderators could or would ensure that names used are real.

The site contains various pages such as ‘Meg’s Campaign,’ which so far has an item titled ‘Whitman Campaign Steering Committee Members Have History of Run-Ins with the Law.’ On a page called ‘Meg Sightings,’ it says, ‘Meg Whitman was recently seen at a NASCAR race in her Burberry coat …. Have you seen Meg on the campaign trail? Tell us your story.’

-- Michael Rothfeld in Sacramento

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