Gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman on Monday pumped another $20 million into her campaign, bringing her contributions from her personal fortune to just about $60 million.
The latest deposit into the Meg for Governor campaign won't do much for her effort to convince opponents that she's not trying to buy her way into the office.
Whitman has already spent more than $46 million in her quest to beat state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner in the June Republican primary, paying tens of millions to blanket television and radio airwaves with ads introducing herself to California voters.
A new poll found the advertising is having an effect on voters. In the latest USC-Los Angeles Times poll, Whitman leads Democrat challenger Jerry Brown 44 percent to 41 percent. Two-thirds of people polled say they had heard or seen an ad about the race.
Poizner, also a multimillionaire who has given his campaign $19 million to date, but had spent only about $3 million as of mid-March. He has said he is saving his resources to mount an aggressive attack against Whitman in the final weeks of the Republican contest.
Brown spokesman Sterling Clifford said Whitman is spending unprecedented money "to fund simplistic sloganeering and attack ads. Her Wall Street money won't be enough to crown herself the Republican nominee or buy the governor's office this November."
Whitman's campaign has said she is willing to spend as much as $150 million of her own money in the race for governor.
