Dog Days: Meg and Jerry

18 July 2010 |permalink | email article

CBS, on its Saturday evening news, finally got around to discussing the California gubernatorial race pitting lifetime Democrat Jerry Brown against Meg Whitman who did not bother to register with the Republican Party until 2007. Late to the recent news from the Field Poll that the combatants are in a virtual dead heat the network correspondent wondered, given the state’s astronomical budget deficit – with no movement toward a resolution – why any rational person would want the job. It’s a good question.

Calbuzz, the lively blog co-written by veteran former Bay Area journalists Jerry Roberts and Phil Trounstine, has followed the race closely, giving neither side a pass. Queen Meg has 1,126 paid staffers with little to do but send out email blasts attacking Brown, while the former governor is criticized for a cheapskate approach to the race, sounding in their words more like a political analyst than a candidate.

But the blog picked up something possibly useful to Brown in a comment about Whitman on San Diego radio last week: “She in many ways is more the incumbent than I am.”

Intentional or not, the comment may provide Brown with an opening to set up a referendum portraying billionaire Whitman as an historic spender, with ubiquitous ads that flood the media, non-stop marketing and a penchant for quick shifts in positions. Nothing sticks out more than her recent remark that she and Brown are in virtual agreement on the issue of illegal immigration.

Is she a political “fraidy” cat? It’s not clear but while Brown has accepted ten debate invitations Whitman has agreed to just one two weeks before the Nov. 2 election. 


 

 

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