Meg Whitman Becomes Biggest Self-Funded Candidate in History
Former EBay CEO Meg Whitman
Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
Former EBay Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman.
Former EBay Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
June 9 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg's Deirdre Bolton reports on major newsmakers in today's Movers & Shakers. (Source: Bloomberg)
Meg Whitman, the former EBay Inc. chief executive officer, has contributed $119 million of her own fortune to her campaign for California governor, making her the biggest self-funded candidate in U.S. history.
Whitman, 54, a Republican running against Jerry Brown, California’s attorney general and former governor, put $15 million into her campaign on Sept. 13, bringing her total contributions to $119 million, according to the California Secretary of State’s website. She and Brown are competing to succeed Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who can’t run this year.
“Meg Whitman will be independent of special interests and will only be accountable to the people of California when she becomes governor,” Darrel Ng, a Whitman spokesman, said today in a statement sent by e-mail.
Whitman surpassed New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who spent $108.4 million on his successful 2009 re-election bid, according to the city’s Campaign Finance Board. Whitman has received an additional $24 million in donations for a total of $143 million since February 2009.
Whitman’s cash “enables her to be competitive in what would otherwise be a very difficult state for a Republican,” Jack Pitney, who teaches government at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California, said today in a telephone interview. “Jerry Brown doesn’t have nearly as much money but he does have the name identification that money can’t buy.”
New York’s mayor is founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.
Schwarzenegger can’t run for re-election this year because of a state law limiting governors to no more than two consecutive terms in office. Brown served two terms as governor earlier in his career.
The Los Angeles Times reported Whitman’s most recent contribution to her campaign earlier today.
-- With assistance from Michael Marois in Sacramento. Editors: Ted Bunker, Pete Young.
To contact the reporter on this story: Alison Vekshin in San Francisco at avekshin@bloomberg.net.
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