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Whitman talks jobs, ‘scary rumor’ at Burbank stop

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Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman pledged on Sunday to stop entertainment jobs from fleeing the state as she rallied supporters in Burbank.

“In two more days, we’re going to start bringing really good jobs back to California,” Whitman told hundreds of supporters in a hotel ballroom, adding that her goal is “not losing a single entertainment job to a neighboring state. I’m a proven job creator. I have created jobs in my 30-year career in business, in direct contrast to my opponent, who has been part of the war on jobs in California for 40 years.”

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Whitman continued a multiday sprint around the state in the lead-up to election day. Several members of the nurses union, who have been protesting her events, attended the Burbank gathering and stood silently with their backs to Whitman and their hands clasped.

Whitman did not acknowledge the protesters, who were clad in maroon scrubs. Nor did she acknowledge that most public polling shows she is several points behind Democratic rival Jerry Brown. “We’re going to win this,” Whitman said, standing in front of large California flags and banners that read “Take back Sac.”
“You know what? Our internal polls and some public polls now show this to be a dead heat. And if we go into Nov. 2 in a dead heat, what happens? We win!” The results are in their hands, she said, urging her supporters to make sure their friends and relatives cast ballots Tuesday.

“This is a very important election. It is a battle for the soul of California,” she said. “You can start to feel the enthusiasm.” Whitman reiterated her three priorities--that she would reduce wasteful government spending, spur the economy and fix public schools.

She said Brown was planning to raise taxes, basing her remark on comments by former Gov. Gray Davis that the next governor would be forced to ask voters to renew temporary tax hikes they approved last year to help balance the budget.

Davis “said Jerry Brown has no new ideas to fix this budget, he is going to put a tax increase on the ballot,” Whitman said.

“Talk about March madness. Who wants to raise taxes during a recession? You won’t see that in a Whitman administration.”

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The claim is inaccurate because Davis never named Brown in his comments; he said only that declining revenue would mean extending the tax increases, which requires voter approval.

Brown has not proposed raising taxes and has repeatedly said he would not do so without voters’ OK.

Whitman also told the crowd she had heard a “scary rumor” that Brown had picked Davis, Brown’s former chief of staff who was recalled from the governor’s office in 2003, to lead Brown’s transition team. The crowd booed.

Brown spokesman Sterling Clifford said the rumor was false.

“There is no transition team in place,” he said. “That is a Wednesday conversation if we win.” -

- Seema Mehta in Burbank

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