After spending tens of millions, Meg Whitman's stunning fall in polls shows inability to connect

[Amerigo Vespucci]

After spending tens of millions, Meg Whitman's stunning fall in polls shows inability to connect, experts say

Ken McLaughlin

[e-mail]
Posted: 10/28/2010 07:58:58 PM PDT
Updated: 10/28/2010 10:25:05 PM PDT



Republican candidate for Governor Meg Whitman talks to a voter Thursday night Oct. 28, 2010, at her Walnut Creek, Calif. campaign headquarters. (Dan Rosenstrauch/Staff)

http://www.mercurynews.com/elections/ci_16462527?source=most_emailed&nclick_check=1

Despite spending more than $160 million -- $141.5 million from her own pocket -- the billionaire is now down by 8 to 13 percentage points in the state's three major polls. It's a scenario no one could have imagined in mid-September, when polls showed Whitman and Democrat Jerry Brown running neck and neck. "The fact is that she just couldn't close the sale with voters," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political analyst at the University of Southern California.

But Whitman, political analysts say, has stumbled badly when her gold-plated consultants' political script went awry -- whether it was reporters asking about her dismal voting record, a celebrity attorney trotting out Whitman's former illegal immigrant housekeeper or "Today" show host Matt Lauer pushing her to take her TV attack ads off the air.

Most political analysts say Whitman can blame her collapse on the way the housekeeper scandal played out in late September and early October. If some evil mastermind had to design a scandal to hurt Whitman politically with Latinos and undecided voters, he probably couldn't have written a better plot.

"It reinforced the image of a coldhearted rich person who doesn't care for the semi-serfs -- as Jerry Brown calls them -- who work for her," said Jack Pitney, a professor of politics and government at Claremont McKenna College.

[livetohike]

1. "I'm a billionnaire. I'm you". Yeah, that should work

:rofl:

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. good for the economy in two ways

First, ad companies and ad buys, and news outlets are happy with the infusion of 140,000,000, next, Jerry Brown will do a great job for the Californian economy.

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. Beat me to it.

Only thing I can't figure out is how she thought she'd see a payout on her investment - what does the job pay?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

9. heh.

tis the contact you make and keep while in office.

Poor Meg Witless. All those excess dollars were weighing her down.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Can't buy me love . . . .

[LibDemAlways]

4. In a new ad she reminds voters she's a billionaire.

Way to go Meg. In a state with over 12% unemployment, people really want to look at your smug face declaring how much $$ you have. What an idiot. Hope she not only loses, but is humiliated in the process.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. Scripts don't work...she doesn't have the ability to ad-lib.

She can't think on her feet; all she has are right-wing talking points, and in a complex state like California, those aren't enough, not by a long shot.

I. Am. So. Fucking. Relieved.

Go Jerry!

:toast:

[tabatha]

7. Ditto

Can't wait for Tuesday when the deal will be sealed.
Wonder if she'll throw a tantrum.
Jerry seems like a really decent guy.

[NBachers]

8. I. Am. So. Fucking. Relieved.

I second that motion. Now if only Barbara Boxer's lead was a little higher. And I'd love to keep Loretta Sanchez around, too.

And, of course, Go Giants!

[Johonny]

10. For all that money, she should have hired good campaign managers

Finally in the last week she is at least trying back to basic, who I am, why I want to be your governor stuff. It's amazing this late in she is basically introducing herself to voters. What did they not think saturation bombing of commercials meant as brand marketing, but saying nothing would not bored the voters and turn them against her? She ain't new coke. Yeah the ads work everyone in the state knows her name. But almost no one was entertained by her commercials and no one still knew the who, what, where and why of her campaign. It will go down as one of the worst run and expensively run campaigns ever.

[benddem]

11. with all that money

you'd think she'd do something with her hair. Amazing that she is so clueless to say that her maid ("one of my family") should be "deported."