Democrats gearing up with $40 million effort to attack GOP's Meg Whitman

[Newsjock]

Source: San Jose Mercury News

Frightened that Jerry Brown's campaign coffers aren't rich enough to battle a billionaire to become California's next governor, three separate Democratic and pro-labor groups are poised to raise more than $40 million to start trashing GOP front-runner Meg Whitman.

Over the next week, the Democratic Governors Association and two other groups will pour an unprecedented wave of cash into a negative advertising campaign four months ahead of the June 8 primary.

... "The Democrats are having a 1994 nightmare," said John Pitney, a government and politics professor at Claremont McKenna College. "They're really worried that this election could be very much like that one, when there was a Republican sweep across the nation, and a Democrat named Brown lost to a Republican for California governor," referring to Pete Wilson's defeat of Brown's sister, Kathleen Brown.

According to Democratic sources in all three groups, the ads are scheduled to begin appearing by next week and will present a "populist message" portraying Whitman, the former eBay executive, as a callous CEO who laid off workers while reaping millions in salaries and bonuses while attending to personal business in a corporate jet. The sources said the ads will try to paint her as a greedy Wall Street-style tycoon at a time when many Americans blame Wall Street for the collapse of the U.S. economy.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_14376994?nclick_check=1

[Cleita]

1. How about the right message?

I just saw one of her commercials and she's touting that running the state like a business is what she would bring to California. Excuse me but :puke:, we already have had that, most lately with Arnold, who supposedly is a businessman and has an MBA. Jerry Brown needs to bring up the fact that business can't run a democracy because businesses are kingdoms, with kings, an aristocracy and peasants. There is no democracy in business. They can dictate and exclude besides misappropriating funds for their profit by cutting needed taxes to keep the state running. When Arnold became Governor, by caveat, California was the sixth largest economy in the world. Today it's the eighth thanks to him and his Republican courtiers. No more! We need a governor who has a clue about democracy not another king or in her case a queen who will take care of a small group of billionaires and nothing else.

[NYC_SKP]

2. We can NOT underestimate the gullibility of Californians re ads. Remember prop H8.

I've already seen Meg's ads and they're slick and they'll sell.

Jerry Brown, I hope, will out do her and outspend her.

I'm gonna support the hell out of his campaign.

[Cleita]

5. She's going to have gobs of corporate money thrown at her for TV commercials.

Democrats can't compete with that. We have to compete with the message. It means that Jerry and the rest of us have to get out among the people with card tables and signs and talking to voters at farmer's markets, swap meets, county fairs, rodeos, saloons, bus stops and anywhere liberal Californians and those on the fence are bound to meet. Writers who support Jerry are going to have to try to get articles published about him in the local fish wrappers throughout the state. I doubt if Meg will get her Ferragamos, muddied and worn down in those venues and probably won't bother to get much published in local newspapers unless they really are conservative either. She's going to rely on the corporate media to push her message and probably will borrow Arnold's Hollywood publicists to do a lot of it. We have to hit her where she doesn't expect it.

[msongs]

3. her millions of ads conveniently do NOT mention she is a republican nt

[KingFlorez]

4. Can't take anything for granted

We already have one disaster of a Republican governor, another one right in row is the last thing we need.

[TomCADem]

6. With The Money She Has, People Will Ignore That She Is The Same As Arnold...

In her commercials, she does not say anything that she would do differently than Arnold. She proposes:

1. Lowering taxes - So, more job cuts?
2. Improving education - Wait what about #1?
3. Increasing employment - Wait, what about #1?

Finally, what is she going to do about our State Constituion and its hundreds of voter propositions? What can she do that is constitutional? California's constitution mandates spending, prohibits tax increases, and requires 2/3 vote on the budget and taxes.

California in absolutely impossible to govern AND it has had Republican governors for most of the past three decades.

So, I think Whitman will win, because California for some reason keeps on choosing Republican governors.