Voters Face Stark Choice For California Governor
SACRAMENTO (AP) -- California voters face a clear choice when they vote for governor in November: A disciplined executive who wants to bring business sense to state government, or an old political hand who says he has the skills to guide the state through troubled times.
On the Republican side is Meg Whitman, a political neophyte who amassed a fortune in the corporate world and who runs a tightly scripted campaign focused on polling and targeting specific groups of potential voters. The Democrats have nominated Jerry Brown, a 72-year-old career politician well-known for his candor, gaffes and less-is-more style of campaigning.
Former eBay chief executive Whitman, 54, and Brown, the state's attorney general, are running neck-and-neck in an increasingly negative campaign that has been marked by Whitman's record-breaking spending and Brown's caginess.
Both have had tremendous professional success in their divergent careers, and yet voters are split, or uncertain, about who might be best to lead the nation's most populous state out of its financial morass. The state is best by deep disillusionment with government and the political process.
Voters also have heard these candidates' stories before, says University of California, Berkeley political scientist Bruce Cain: A moderate Democrat who often is at odds with his party's base, and a wealthy first-time candidate who wants to apply principles from the business world to state government.
"Neither approach has worked miraculously in the past, so there's a lot of voters looking for the best of, shall we say, imperfect choices," Cain said.
And neither candidate has offered a detailed solution to the issues voters care most about: high unemployment, sinking home values and persistent, deep budget cuts that have led to teacher layoffs, dirty bathrooms at state parks and a host of other service cuts.
Brown and Whitman have promised to cut wasteful spending, further reform pensions and create an emergency fund to help the state weather dips in state revenue, all ideas promoted by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that have stalled at times in the Legislature. Both say they would meet with lawmakers early to take up the state's fiscal mess, rather than waiting until spring.
Whoever is elected will inherit another multibillion-dollar budget deficit, in part because Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders approved a state budget that tries to cover most of the state's $19 billion deficit through rosy revenue assumptions and creative accounting.
But the modest pension reforms accomplished this year could lead to future savings, and the next governor could benefit from a lower threshold to pass budgets through the Legislature if voters approve an initiative on the November ballot. In a few years, more moderate politicians might also be sent to Sacramento because of open primaries and independent redistricting, ballot reforms championed by Schwarzenegger.
With unemployment stuck above 12 percent, Whitman spent months honing her message of job creation, cutting government spending and fixing schools during a tight primary race with state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, while Brown waited out the summer in anticipation of an expensive campaign.
Whitman, who has spent $140 million on her campaign, appeared to be gaining ground in the polls after intensely targeting crucial independents, who account for one in five registered California voters, and Latinos, who are a growing segment of the electorate.
But her carefully plotted strategy was thrown off track last month when her former housekeeper of nine years revealed she was an illegal immigrant and accused Whitman of turn away when she sought help. Whitman, who hired the maid through an employment agency, said she did not know the worker was illegal until she admitted it in 2009; Whitman then fired her.
After a long political career in which he's taken evolving positions on everything from taxes to the death penalty, Brown often is seen as a flip-flopper. In one Whitman campaign ad using footage from his 1992 presidential primary race against Bill Clinton, Clinton says of Brown: "You know, he reinvents himself every year or two."
The negative portraits painted by their opponents could be key with independent voters, for whom character is a critical issue. Democrats and one of the state's largest unions are questioning Whitman's compassion for illegal immigrants in campaign mailers and ads; Whitman is now seeking to soften her image with a new ad in which she talks directly into the camera about her goals for California.
"It really comes down to the issue of character. Who do you trust, who is saying what he or she believes and is he or she sticking to it?" said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political science professor at the University of Southern California.
Whitman has surpassed the U.S. record for personal spending on a campaign, giving her bid $122 million from her own bank account. She easily eclipses Brown, who has spent just $11 million to date.
But the Democrat has had help from union-backed political committees that have spent more than $13 million so far in the general election, according to the Fair Political Practices Commission. That adds to the GOP perception that Brown is too cozy with public employee unions. Whitman also has benefited from more than $1 million in independent spending.
Both candidates say they oppose raising taxes, but Whitman wants to eliminate several taxes she says hurt California businesses, including the manufacturing tax, the capital gains tax paid by wealthy residents and a fee charged to small businesses at startup.
Brown says those are corporate giveaways that would not help the state's neediest residents and would only add to California's massive budget deficits, while Whitman has accused Brown of political expediency for his change of heart on Proposition 13, the 1978 initiative that capped property taxes.
Whitman also wants to cut the state work force by 40,000 employees, although it's unclear how she would accomplish that. She has pledged to create 2 million private sector jobs. Brown has proposed creating half a million jobs by investing in clean energy and building new transmission lines for renewable power.
They also differ on the environment. Brown has defended California's landmark global warming law as attorney general and opposes a November ballot measure, Proposition 23, that would suspend the law. Whitman also opposes Proposition 23, but wants to suspend the 2006 global warming law if elected so she can reevaluate its effect on the state's economy.
With the candidates stuck in a dead heat, the winner could be decided by a slim margin.
Buoyed by voter upset over bank bailouts and the still sputtering economy, Republicans nationwide are hoping for a surge this November, or at least to take advantage of a so-called "enthusiasm gap" with Democrats. It's unclear how far that might push Whitman in California, where Democrats have a 13-point registration advantage.
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