While Attorney General Jerry Brown's gubernatorial campaign is sending out letters asking supporters to pledge $20 a month to "match Meg" Whitman, the former eBay CEO and Republican gubernatorial nominee has been spending the $20 million she recently donated to her own campaign on advertising.
Some of the commercials are playing in Spanish, and during this week's match between Mexico with France..
Yes, the same Whitman who hired the architect of a ballot measure meant to kick the children of undocumented immigrants out of public schools, former Governor Pete Wilson, to chair her campaign. Wilson appeared in English-language radio ads for Whitman during the primary promising that she'd be "tough as nails on illegal immigration."
The ads call Whitman "a different kind of candidate," promises to create more jobs, improve schools and cut bureaucracy, and respects the "nuestra communidad" ("our community").
It's not new -- Whitman granted access to Spanish language media and run ads in Spanish during the primary.
Also on Thursday, Whitman attended a fundraiser for State Senator Sam Blakeselee in Los Gatos where she was greeted by protestors from the South Bay Labor Council and the California Labor Federation.
The protestors criticized the oil industry ties of former Exxon executive Blakelee and Whitman's financial dealings with investment bank Goldman Sachs, saying the event was "Big Oil and Wall Street coming together in an effort to wage a hostile corporate takeover of our state."
The Whitman campaign resounded today with a letter to the California Nurses Association asking for the organization's mailing list in order to speak directly members:
While your union leadership may choose to only support Democratic candidates, we do hope you administer your union under fully open and democratic principles and do not fear giving your rank-and-file members access to both parties' ideas.
The Nurses Association responded in a written statement that they wouldn't disclose personal information of their members, but invited Whitman to speak to the nurses at up to four unscripted events to be streamed live online, and that Attorney General Jerry Brown would be happy to join her.
Jackson West figures Los Gatos garden parties are great ways to raise money, not so good in terms of a popular public image.
