Thread: Whitman spends $80 million on governor's race

Whitman spends $80 million on governor's race


By Jack Chang
jchang@sacbee.com
Published: Thursday, May. 27, 2010 - 7:50 pm
Last Modified: Thursday, May. 27, 2010 - 8:06 pm

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman continued her record-shattering spending streak this spring, burning through $33.8 million in about two months, according to a campaign finance statement filed Thursday.

That amount brings the billionaire candidate's spending total to more than $80 million, with $68 million of it coming from her own personal wealth.

The former CEO of online auction firm eBay has said she's prepared to spend as much as $150 million of her own wealth on her campaign. She had $3.8 million in cash on hand as of May 22.

By comparison, Democratic candidate Jerry Brown had spent just $259,582 from March 18 to May 22, bringing his campaign expenditure total to about $320,000. He had $20.6 million in cash on hand as of May 22.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner, another wealthy former Silicon Valley CEO, spent $17.3 million between March 18 and May 22 after holding onto his resources for months. He's sunk about $24 million of his own wealth in his campaign and had about $3 million in cash on hand.

Poizner's campaign has spent $17.9 million on TV advertising compared to the $42 million spent by Whitman.
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Capitol Alert: Steve Poizner spends $17.3 million in about two months

By Jack Chang - Published: 5:05 pm
After sitting on millions of dollars in campaign treasure for months, Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner opened the floodgates and spent more than $17 million from March 18 to May 22, according to a campaign finance statement filed this afternoon.

May 27, 2010
Jerry Brown reports $20.6 million in cash on hand

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown has $20.6 million in cash on hand leading up to the June 8 primary, which Brown is all but certain to win, according to a campaign finance statement filed today.

Brown received $6.8 million in campaign contributions from March 18 to May 22, and $16.7 million from Jan. 1 to May 22, the filing shows.

His campaign has spent only $403,684, less than 1 percent of what Republican rival Meg Whitman had spent as of March 17.

Whitman and Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner have yet to file their finance statements, which are due by the end of today.

UPDATE: The Brown campaign points out that $157,151 of its expenses from Jan. 1 to May 22 are non-monetary contributions. Not counting such items, which include fundraising expenses, cleaning services and other contributions, the campaign spent $246,533 in that time period.

May 27, 2010

U.S. Senate candidates release campaign finance totals

Former Rep. Tom Campbell outpaced his two main GOP rivals in contributions over the seven-week stretch ending May 19, according to campaign finance reports filed today.

Campbell raised $989,662 in the reporting period between April 1 and May 19 and had $975,271 in cash on hand as of May 19, his campaign announced. He has raised a total of $2.6 million.

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina raised $909,833 in contributions over the same period. Fiorina had $620,460 in cash on hand as of May 19. She has raised nearly $3.7 million during her campaign.

Fiorina loaned herself an additional $1.9 million in the last week, bringing her total to $5.5 million over the course of her campaign.

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, raised $514,608 in the reporting period and has $276,614 on hand. He has raised a total of $2.34 million.
Incumbent Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, who faces no serious competition in the primary, raised $2 million over the same period and has nearly $9.7 million in cash on hand in preparation for the general election.

Boxer has had two fundraisers with President Barack Obama since April 1, one in Los Angeles that generated $500,000 for her campaign and another Tuesday in San Francisco that netted $600,000. The bulk of money from Tuesday's event was not included in the latest filing, according to her campaign.

Fiorina began airing ads statewide early this month, while Campbell launched his own ad in select markets last week. Both say they will remain on the air until the June 8 primary. DeVore does not have as much money to sustain television advertising, although he was able to run two ads statewide during Monday's series finale of the Fox show "24."

"Even I didn't expect to go on TV, but when I understood that this was the last show and that it has a conservative demographic, we decided to use some of the extra money we raised to go all in and run these two ads statewide," DeVore said after speaking Wednesday at an event hosted by the Tea Party Patriots of El Dorado Hills.

Senate candidates were required to file their final pre-primary campaign finance report today with the Federal Election Commission.

Update (4:25 p.m.): Totals for Boxer and Fiorina were corrected to reflect transfers from other committees that raised money for the candidates.

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