Whitman Promises Victory, Despite Recent Polls
WESTLAKE VILLAGE (AP) -- Down in the polls, Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman began the final week of her campaign Monday by rallying supporters and promising victory on Nov. 2.
"We are going to win this," the former eBay chief executive told hundreds of supporters gathered poolside at a hotel in Westlake Village, an upper-income community about 40 miles west of downtown Los Angeles.
Two polls during the past week have shown Whitman trailing Democrat Jerry Brown, but she said she was convinced voters will respond to her campaign message of cutting state spending, improving the business environment and boosting school performance.
"Our problems are tough, but so am I," Whitman said.
At a campaign stop earlier Monday in the desert city of Indio, Whitman called a University of Southern California-Los Angeles Times poll that showed her trailing Brown by 12 points "bunk," the Desert Sun newspaper of Palm Springs reported. Her campaign believes the race is much closer.
A poll last week by the Public Policy Institute of California found Brown leading Whitman 44 percent to 36 percent among likely voters. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
In Westlake Village, Whitman urged members of the audience, some of whom listened from beach chairs, to promote her candidacy with their friends and staff phone banks for her.
As Whitman spoke, supporters of the California Nurses Association and other unions chanted from behind a hedge and held aloft signs reading "Nurses Say No to Whitman." Whitman supporters rushed to cover up the signs with placards supporting the candidate.
Whitman singled out unions as trying to protect the status quo, which she said must be upended.
"Why do you think they're following me around?" she said as supporters booed the protesting union members.
Whitman has continually attacked Brown for the money and campaign support he has received from unions, saying he would merely do their bidding if voters return the former two-term governor to Sacramento.
Brown had no public events on Monday.
Westlake Village resident Linda Maria Kaplan, 54, said Whitman earned her vote with her promise to fix the state's ailing public schools, although she wasn't sure what steps the candidate would take to accomplish it.
"She seems able to do something positive," said Kaplan, who held a cheerleader's pom-pom with a handle autographed by Whitman.
John Stroud, 82, of Thousand Oaks, said he was won over by the former businesswoman's campaign line that she had made a career out of creating jobs. But even if Whitman wins, Stroud said he was skeptical she could accomplish much with Democrats holding a majority in both houses of the Legislature.
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