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elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17236 Location: Texas

Meg Whitman's stump speech bemoaning state regulations has a big hole

On the campaign trail, it's one of former eBay CEO Meg Whitman's favorite stories.

The Republican candidate for governor has told supporters around the state how it took the company "two and a half years" to break ground on a building in North San Jose for eBay subsidiary PayPal. She has used the story as an example of why California is such a terrible place to do business -- and why so many firms are fleeing.

A Mercury News review of documents at San Jose City Hall, however, clearly shows that the city processed eBay's development application in record time and that fulfilling all the city's requirements took just 11 months.

Much of the lag apparently was due to eBay's decision to build an environmentally friendly structure -- which was neither a state nor a city requirement.

San Jose officials say they scurried to make sure PayPal didn't decide to build elsewhere. And Whitman at the time effusively praised the city for speeding the process.

"The city of San Jose has always been extremely flexible in helping to anticipate and meet our rapidly changing needs," she said then.

A campaign spokesman said Thursday that Whitman stands by the story she tells on the stump.

more.. link to news article

BigfootDepot · Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 916 Location: Northwest Ohio

Meg Whitman is now the biggest self-funding candidate in history

It's official: Meg Whitman is the biggest self-funding candidate paying her way through a single race in political history.

As the Los Angeles Times' Anthony York notes, the California GOP gubernatorial nominee contributed another $15 million to her campaign on Tuesday. That means that Whitman, who came by most of her wealth during her tenure as CEO of eBay, has spent $119 million of her own cash on the race -- almost $10 million more than previous record-holder Michael Bloomberg, who ran up his $110 million tally during his successful 2009 re-election campaign.

Link to article .........

It's nice to know that as sellers, we all contributed a little piece to make this happen. :x

mojavelyn · Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 9:23 pm Post subject:

And running a very big negative campaign... jerry hasn't mentioned her involvment with Goldman-Sachs and her insider trading yet tho. Maybe he should.

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17236 Location: Texas

"New Brown ad features Whitman as Pinocchio"

Jerry Brown waited until Labor Day weekend to formally launch his campaign for governor, and seemed to try to run a campaign above the fray. Brown said he wanted a positive, open discussion with Californians about their future.

That was so last week. Less than two weeks after Brown's official campaign kick-off, Brown unveiled two new television ads that feature his Republican opponent, Meg Whitman, as Pinocchio. Call it a sign of things to come.

Brown campaign manger Steven Glazer unveiled the ad at a Sacramento press conference Tuesday. Glazer said the Whitman campaign was forging ahead, "truth be damned," and said the new ads amount to political self-defense.

"We are not going to be pushed around like one of her EBay employees," Glazer said, a backhanded reference to an earlier altercation between Whitman and one of her employees while Whitman was EBay CEO.

Glazer said they were going negative reluctantly. "We don't want to do it," he said. "We hope voters will recognize we're trying to defend ourselves."

"Jerry Brown is doing exactly what a 40-year career politician would do: Run from his real record and launch character attacks," said Whitman spokeswoman Andrea Jones-Rivera "His record is undisputed. Jerry Brown left California in a fiscal disaster with record unemployment and turned a $6-billion surplus into a $1-billion deficit."

more.. link to news article

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17236 Location: Texas

Update:

"Ebay founder won't endorse Meg Whitman for governor"

Pierre Omidyar, who created EBay and hired Meg Whitman as his company's chief executive, said Tuesday that he would not endorse her and would find it "difficult" to vote for her for governor if he still lived in California.

Omidyar praised Whitman's leadership skills and said she would do a "great job" if elected, but said he could not back her candidacy because of her stance on gay marriage and her alignment with former Gov. Pete Wilson.

Wilson, who is a co-chairman of Whitman's campaign, was a vocal supporter of taking away taxpayer-funded benefits from illegal immigrants.

"Now I have not endorsed her because we have some differences on some of the political issues," Omidyar, who is now based in Hawaii, told Bloomberg TV in an interview that will air Wednesday on "InBusiness with Margaret Brennan." "I was disappointed in her not-correct decision, in my view, to support Proposition 8 in California. I was disappointed in her alignment with former Governor Pete Wilson on immigration issues, who I think took some very extreme views years ago about denying benefits to illegal immigrants. And so because of those types of issues, I think we are a little bit apart, and I can't quite support her because of that."

The billionaire philanthropist has avoided weighing in on Whitman's candidacy until now.

more.. link to news article

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17236 Location: Texas

Another update:

"PayPal founder not sure about Meg"

So PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel is supporting Meg Whitman, the eBay CEO who bought PayPal for $1.5 billion in 2002, in her race as the Republican nominee for governor of California (as I reported Friday). But Thiel’s co-founder and investing partner Max Levchin is not so enthusiastic.

Thiel never worked for Whitman – he was PayPal CEO, and didn’t think he was necessary for the transition. Levchin, who masterminded the site’s security, stayed on – but his employment history with Whitman, while mixed, is not the reason for his ambivalence. Instead, it’s the issues.

Levchin, who this summer sold his latest startup Slide to Google, told me, “I’m pretty torn. I think she is fundamentally the most pro-business candidate, so as a result, I agree with her on those issues. I disagree with her on some social issues. My political views are those of a San Francisco libertarian – fiscally conservative, socially progressive… I wouldn’t vote for the opposition (former Gov. Jerry Brown, the Democratic nominee) – I might abstain. I haven’t made up my mind.”

more.. link to news article

mojavelyn · Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 2:21 am Post subject:

Says a lot doesn't it if her pals at ebay aren't supporting her. A right wing talk radio station in Los Angeles KFI is nailing her every chance they get too.

BigfootDepot · Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 916 Location: Northwest Ohio

Suit from Meg Whitman’s maid highlights growing Latino disenchantment with GOP

Meg Whitman has set a new campaign spending record in her quest to be California's next governor — she will likely be spending at least the next several days fending off questions about how she treated a low-wage domestic worker in her own home. Whitman's former housekeeper, Nicandra Diaz-Santillan, is launching a lawsuit against the billionaire former CEO for EBay, saying that Whitman tossed her out like "garbage" when she asked for help in finding legal status in the United States.

Link to Article ...........

mojavelyn · Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2010 11:09 pm Post subject:

Did anyone watch the debate between Meggie and Brown?

hblt46 · Joined: 27 Jul 2007 Posts: 296

Yeah Mo, I watched it.

(I'm in Northern California)

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17236 Location: Texas

One article I read (about Meg's illegal immigrant) she states she (Meg) knew she was illegal and in another article she states she DID NOT know.
With her being this indecisive about her hired help, how is she to run and entire state???????

"Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman Admits to Hiring Undocumented Housekeeper"

After Meg Whitman talked tough yesterday about cracking down on undocumented workers, she revealed that she herself had employed an illegal immigrant for nine years. Whitman's campaign announced the news in a telephone call with reporters on Wednesday prior to a press conference held by the employee, a female housekeeper, and her lawyer, Gloria Allred.

The housekeeper said she was emotionally and financially abused by Meg Whitman, who expanded her housekeeping duties to include nanny duties. She said Meg Whitman fired her after she asked for help in becoming a documented worker after Whitman announced her candidacy for governor last year. Her lawyer also accused Whitman, herself the mother of two, of pregnancy discrimination.

Allred said her client would file a claim against Whitman with the state's Division of Labor Standards Enforcement for wages for which she was not paid and for mileage compensation. Allred said her client had recently contacted her through an attorney referral. The housekeeper said she came forward "because there are a lot of Megs out there who are mistreating" workers.

more.. link to news article

This poor illegal immigrant sure has a powerful attorney!

mojavelyn · Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2010 12:24 am Post subject:

Yeah!! Good job Meggie!! Knowing that hiring illegals is illegal... Lets not forget she was on the board of directors of Goldman and even tho she gave back the money was involved in insider trading... Oh Yeah, wasn't Goldman one of the companies who wailed and bemoaned they needed a bailout from the taxpayers because they made some bad business choices? And I don't care if they paid it back or not.

Its a hi-profile case. Alred would have jumped on it.

HB, I didn't watch it, wanna give me a synopsis? i even missed the radio this morning where they would have discussed it. I hope Brown showed a bit of backbone!

hblt46 · Joined: 27 Jul 2007 Posts: 296

Brown looked and sounded much more professional. He knew what he was talking about and it showed. He was "cool, calm, and collected".

Meg said one thing that I could agree with and that was regarding the budget. Every year we go through this business of no budget. She said we should go to a 2 year budget. Possible problem with that though is that in 2 years, we may be in twice the trouble.

One place where she put both feet in her mouth was when she was talking about keeping business' in California. She commented that a California company should never put a call center or service center in Arizona and they should put them in Fresno or other distressed areas.

I damn near turned inside out! Didn't she built and put that huge operations/service center in UTAH?

I'll tell ya, since the day she entered the race, I swore she'd never get my vote. I'm not jumping with joy about Brown, but I'd rather have Governor Moonbeam anyday than a lying *****.

I pray it's a landslide and she is forced into hiding due to embarrassment!

hblt46 · Joined: 27 Jul 2007 Posts: 296

Also... the 2nd debate is this Saturday. I haven't found out at what time though.

mojavelyn · Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2010 2:38 am Post subject:

Yeah I believe they did build it in That corner of the US... maybe Nebraska... Up yonder somewhere...

And wasn't it about the time of the transition between her and Johnny boy that how many people were laid off from ebay?