Thread: Whitman, Poizner meet in second Calif GOP debate

Whitman, Poizner meet in second Calif GOP debate

By JULIET WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer
Sunday, May 2, 2010 at 11 a.m.

SAN JOSE, Calif.— Two wealthy Silicon Valley Republicans who are battling in an increasingly negative campaign for their party's gubernatorial nomination meet for their second debate Sunday, where they are likely to touch on everything from Wall Street to public service.

The front-runner in the race, former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman, is coming off a tough week in which her service as a board member of the embattled Wall Street investment firm Goldman Sachs was highlighted as the firm came under increasing fire in Congress.

Her rival, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, is trying desperately to catch up with Whitman, who at one point held a 40- to 50-percentage point lead over Poizner in public opinion polls. Poizner says polls now show him narrowing that gap after launching a multimillion-dollar negative ad blitz highlighting Whitman's ties to Wall Street and comparing her to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Poizner has staked out a conservative platform, hammering on issues such as immigration policy, the environment and abortion as he courts the most extreme elements of the Republican Party for the June 8 primary.

But his apparent reversals have led to accusations that Poizner has flip-flopped since his failed 2004 bid for state Assembly, when he received a 100 percent rating from the pro-abortion rights group Planned Parenthood and campaigned as a moderate.

Poizner, who is also a multimillionaire and successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur, held off advertising for nearly a year while Whitman aired dozens of radio and television spots introducing herself to voters. Whitman, a billionaire, has already given her campaign $59 million and has said she could spend as much as $150 million to promote her agenda of running California more like a business.

The winner of the June 8 contest will face state Attorney General Jerry Brown, who was governor from 1975 to 1983.

Because of Whitman's outsized spending, unions that back Brown have already begun attacking her, this week launching a campaign to mobilize 25,000 volunteers against her candidacy.

It also highlighted Whitman's service as a Goldman Sachs board member in 2001-02 and her profits from a now-banned practice called "spinning," in which wealthy investors had preferential access to initial public offerings. The shares were quickly sold for large profits, but some questioned whether officials such as Whitman were given access to the profitable stocks in exchange for steering business to Goldman.

Whitman denied any link in an interview with The Associated Press this week.

"I didn't see the conflict of interest at the time," she said. "I honestly didn't. It was perfectly legal and standard practice back then."

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010 ... op-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

May 2, 2010 | 7:18 p.m.

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.

Receive breaking news alerts on your mobile device. Register »

"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.

evan.halper@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 5890.story

Moving to "General Discussion"

General Discussion
Discuss the issues of illegal immigration, congress, the President, campaigns, legal immigration, security, laws, gangs, border patrol, and homeland security here.