Opinion: Meg Whitman’s $6.5 million fundraising, plus $4 million of her own money, puts her atop California gov race

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Former eBay CEO and current GOP candidate for California governor Meg Whitman will announce shortly that she’s already raised more than $6.5 million for her campaign. More, her campaign claims, than any other Republican candidates in the race longer.

Not bad considering she’s a political newcomer and been an announced candidate for only five months.

And 85% of that dough came from Californians, the campaign says. Whitman has also chipped in $4 million of her own for a total of about $10.5 million.

In the news release Whitman’s campaign chair, former mayor, former senator, former gov Pete Wilson, says:

There is no more certain measure of enthusiasm for a candidate than heavy early campaign contributions. This unprecedented outpouring of support for Meg confirms the demand for a new style of leadership that creates jobs, cuts wasteful spending, and effectively manages state government. Meg’s appeal reaches far beyond just traditional Republicans. She is attracting new donors and new voters to expand our party at a critical time. They are putting their money where their hearts and minds are.

Whitman knows a little about money, having turned eBay from a company with 30 employees and $4.7 million into one with 15,000 employees and $8 billion in revenues. In the no-longer-very-recent presidential campaign, she was natrional finance chair for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and then raised millions for Sen. John McCain. Both have since endorsed her; probably a coincidence.

The gubernatorial field is vying for the unlikely honor in this fiscally-pressurized deficit days of replacing Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose term limits run out in January 2011.

Whitman’s primary primary opponent, Steve Poizner, the state insurance commissioner, reports raising north of $1.2 million with $250,000 coming the last two days of the quarterly reporting period. He’s also given himself $4.2 million and reports $3.5 million still in hand.

‘The Poizner campaign will be fully-funded,’ said spokesman Jarrod Agen, ‘and we will make Meg Whitman spend it all.’

On the Democrat side, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom reported raising $1.6 million in the last six months, most of it online, which is way less than fellow Democrat, former gov, former mayor and current state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, who reports raising $7.3 million.

All great news for the state’s TV stations next year.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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