Republican Meg Whitman underscored the advantage of wealth in the 2010 race for governor, launching paid advertisements today for her campaign nine months before GOP voters will determine their nominee.
The introductory ads, which the campaign said were running on radio stations across California, highlight Whitman’s experience at several well-known firms. Among them is EBay, where she was chief executive until two years ago.
“We need to reinvent California, and that reinvention starts at the top,” says the ad.
Whitman, who has put $19 million into her campaign, appeared before supporters today at a sweltering, open-air gathering in Fullerton. She said she was formally opening the campaign, although it has been underway in earnest since February, when she first announced she was running.
Her remarks today were a replay of speeches she has made since the spring. She lamented regulation and taxes that she said strangle job-creation in California and demanded reforms to improve the state’s public schools.
She repeated her February vow to cut at least $15 billion in state spending and to eliminate redundant government agencies, and said she would lay off 40,000 state employees. But, as then, she offered no specific cuts and did not suggest which agencies or employees she would target.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/09/meg-whitman-launches-ads-governor.html