Thread: Immigration a hot topic in Whitman and Poizner's last debate

Immigration a hot topic in Whitman and Poizner's last debate
The GOP rivals trade attacks over Arizona's new law, as well as each other's business dealings and consistency on policy issues.
By Evan Halper, Los Angeles Times
7:18 PM PDT, May 2, 2010

Reporting from San Jose

GOP gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner on Sunday traded barbs in their final debate before next month's primary election, a lively and personal exchange in which the candidates attacked each other's business dealings, political affiliations and consistency on policy issues.

Much of the debate was a volley of personal accusations, with front-runner Whitman defending herself against Poizner's attacks and launching several of her own as the pair addressed topics including immigration, California's bleak economy and the state government's dysfunction.

Early on, Poizner seized on Whitman's connections to the embattled Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs, where she once sat on the board and also profited from a controversial stock deal the firm arranged that later became the subject of congressional scrutiny.

"Meg Whitman has massive investments in Goldman Sachs, made huge amounts from the collapse of the housing market and when it was time for Goldman Sachs to get bailed out by taxpayers, Meg Whitman campaigned" for the bailout, said Poizner, the state's insurance commissioner.

Whitman charged Poizner, who is seeking to position himself as the more conservative of the two, with changing his policy positions for political expedience. Poizner commented that he now supports new legislation cracking down on illegal immigrants in Arizona — legislation he said he opposed until revisions were made in recent days — and Whitman called his comment "a classic case of Steve Poizner changing his mind."

"Since he ran for Assembly in 2004, he has changed his position on every important thing," said Whitman, who opposes the new Arizona law.

Poizner said the tweaks to the law "have taken care, from my point of view, of any concerns … I support what is going on in Arizona."

"It's about time we have people running for office," he said, "who have the guts to talk about the honest truth here. … We are bankrupt. We are out of cash and we need to take some steps to stop the flow of people who are here illegally."

Poizner said he would "send the National Guard to the border if that is what I have to do."

Whitman denied claims by Poizner that she supports amnesty for illegal immigrants, vowing to take tough action. She said immigration reform is in order over the long term, but not before securing the border and taking other tough measures to reduce the number of people arriving illegally.

She went on to allege that despite Poizner's vows to cut government programs, spending in the insurance department has risen steadily under his leadership — a claim Poizner denied.

"Meg Whitman, you just do not know what you are talking about," he said.

The debate, held at San Jose's Tech Museum, came as Whitman, the billionaire former head of online auction giant EBay, enjoys a strong lead in the polls. A Los Angeles Times/USC survey released early last month showed her 40 points ahead, although she has been losing ground to Poizner in recent weeks.

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Underdog Poizner on attack in Calif. GOP debate
By JULIET WILLIAMS Associated Press Writer
Posted: 05/02/2010 11:01:09 AM PDT
Updated: 05/02/2010 09:11:38 PM PDT

SAN JOSE, Calif.—California gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner launched an assault on rival Meg Whitman's track record and character Sunday night in the second debate of the Republican primary, taking advantage of what might be his last opportunity to make up ground with conservative voters with the election less than six weeks away.

He repeatedly mentioned Whitman's ties to Goldman Sachs, her past support for Barbara Boxer and her previous praise for a former White House environmental adviser who resigned last year amid controversy.

Poizner, the state insurance commissioner, also was on the defensive as he tried to explain his shifting positions on issues ranging from immigration to abortion.

"Steve is an engineer," Whitman said at one point. "He engineers a new position for every office that he's running for, every election cycle."

When asked about taking more right-wing positions than he has in the past, Poizner said he has become more conservative since being elected four years ago and seeing how the state Capitol operates. Yet instead of explaining his reversals, Poizner launched into more attacks on Whitman.

"Who are you really? The Republican base are looking for a Republican with a track record," he said. "Actions speak louder than words."

Poizner trails far behind Whitman, the former eBay chief executive, in the most recent polls. Whitman has poured $59 million into her campaign and blanketed the airwaves with radio and television ads introducing herself to voters.

Poizner, a multimillionaire Silicon Valley entrepreneur, recently started his own television campaign, focused primarily on attacking Whitman.

In his assault on Whitman Sunday at the Tech Museum in San Jose, Poizner repeatedly brought up her connections to Goldman Sachs, the embattled Wall Street firm that gave Whitman preferential access to stock offerings while she was head of the online auction house. She has been under fire this week for her ties to the firm, where she was paid $475,000 for serving on the board of directors from 2001 to 2002.

Whitman was asked whether it was wrong for her to take part in the now-illegal practice known as "spinning," or quickly selling the preferential stock deals for large profits. At the time, investment houses often gave corporate executives access to such stock offerings, opening them to accusations that they did so to gain access to business from the executives' companies.

Whitman insisted she never steered eBay business to Goldman Sachs because it gave her the special stock deals. She said she made $1.8 million on the deals but forfeited that profit when she settled a lawsuit with eBay shareholders over the arrangement.

"No, I did not do anything wrong," she said when pressed. "It was a legal and standard practice. With 20-20 hindsight, would I do it again? No."

Poizner quickly retorted: "Wow. You really don't get this, Meg. ... Until you got caught, you didn't think anything was wrong."

He said the deals were a conflict of interest for Whitman, and that she showed poor judgment and character.

The debate also touched on such issues as education, health care and immigration.

Poizner has staked out a conservative position on immigration during the campaign, saying that if elected, he would attempt to cut off most state-funded services to illegal immigrants and their children.

He said Sunday that he now approves of Arizona's tough new immigration law. He said he previously had concerns that it encouraged racial profiling, but supports the law now that Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has approved some changes to it.

"I support what's going on in Arizona. They've taken, finally, the power in their own hands to do something about illegal immigration in Arizona," he said.

Whitman, who opposes the Arizona law, said Poizner's shift on it was a "classic case of Steve Poizner changing his mind."

Whitman wants the state and federal governments to spend more money on border security, favors sanctions against employers who hire illegal workers and would seek to ban the admission of undocumented students to state-funded colleges. But she has said she does not support cutting off health care or education for the children of illegal immigrants, saying that punishes them for the actions of their parents.

She said Poizner was "100 percent wrong" when he said she supported amnesty. The charge is based on a comment Whitman made early in her campaign in which she said she would support giving immigrants currently in the country illegally a pathway to become legal citizens.

Poizner sought to draw sharp distinctions between himself and Whitman, trying to link her to liberals such as Boxer, the Democratic senator from California who has long been a favorite target of Republicans, and environmental activist Van Jones. He resigned from the Obama administration after he was linked to efforts suggesting a government role in the 2001 terror attacks.

Whitman repeatedly sought to return to her campaign themes of creating jobs, reducing state spending and fixing education.

She also was forced to defend her spotty voting record. She has acknowledged her failure to vote for most of her adult life, saying she was preoccupied with her career and that of her husband's. Whitman said she didn't feel the need to vote until she became head of eBay and saw how government policies affect businesses.

She repeated those thoughts Sunday and apologized to the debate audience for her lapses.

"I would ask you not to judge me on the mistakes that I have made but on the ideas that I have to fix California," she said.

Despite their extraordinary wealth, both candidates attempted to portray themselves as coming from humble backgrounds. Whitman was asked how a billionaire businesswoman can possibly relate to average Californians who are struggling with double-digit unemployment and have been hit hard by the recession.

She said she and her husband have "been remarkably successful, but in many ways, we embody the California dream." Whitman then quickly shifted to talking about the struggling Californians she has met on the campaign trail.

Both candidates said they oppose the recently enacted federal health care reform package, primarily because of its cost to the state, and favor repealing it. The cost to California is estimated between $2 billion and $3 billion a year, although the full costs will not kick in for seven years.

Neither stated specifically whether they would dismantle the programs to implement the health care law that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is launching.

On the environment, both candidates demurred when asked to state definitively whether they believe global warming is man-made.

"The science is still out," Poizner said. Added Whitman: "I don't know. I'm not a scientist."

The winner of the June 8 primary will face Democrat Jerry Brown, the attorney general who is seeking another tenure as governor after leading the state for two terms beginning in the mid-1970s.

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