Calitics Friends:

Over 43 days ago, we at Level the Playing Field, a coalition of nurses, teachers, and other working Californians, called on Meg Whitman to do the right thing and make her tax returns public.

Whitman agreed to release those tax returns – even saying she would release 25 years of her tax returns if other candidates did too.

Two weeks later, she flip-flopped. She broke her promise and now refuses to release her tax returns.

Since then, the San Jose Mercury News, Monterey County Herald, Vallejo Times Herald, and Marin Independent Journal have all called on Meg Whitman to keep her promise and release her tax returns.

Why is Meg Whitman flip-flopping on releasing her taxes? We don’t know, but we aim to find out, and you can help.

Sign our letter to Meg Whitman requesting that she stop flip-flopping and release her taxes.



Tax Day is one week away and regular Californians who work hard and play by the rules will be filing their tax returns on that day – so we need you to sign this letter now!

Whitman has committed to spending $150 million to convince voters that it’s time for leaders in California to “mean what they say, and say what they mean.”

How can she break such a basic promise as the one she made to release her tax returns?

A person’s tax returns reveal core truths about the content of their character: what their values are, whether they play by the rules, and in Meg’s case, what type of leader she would be.

We need your help to make sure Meg Whitman does not get away with flip-flopping on simple promises that she makes to voters. We need your help to make sure that she doesn’t get away with winning the Governor’s office without ever releasing her records.

Sign our letter demanding she release her tax returns. We need your help to keep the pressure on.

The clock is still ticking…43 days and counting since we asked for her to do what every major candidate for office has done and release her tax returns.

California needs your help – sign our letter today.

Help us keep up the pressure. Hold Meg Whitman accountable for her public promises.

Sincerely,

Team Level the Playing Field

P.S. We may not know the details of Meg Whitman’s tax returns yet, but we do know that her tax plan would spell disaster for California. That’s why it’s essential that we hold Meg accountable. Sign our letter calling on her to release her tax returns today.  

This morning we launched WikiMeg, the first open source, political research site of its kind – open to all, by all and for all. At Level The Playing Field 2010, we are embarking on a bold new experiment in democracy. (Check out this morning’s front pager in the Chronicle here)

We hope the WikiMeg space will serve as a digital laboratory for free speech. It’s based on the idea that by harnessing the collective brainpower of millions of Californians, we can help level the playing field against Meg Whitman’s $200 million television campaign.

We are asking everyone and anyone with factual information to share – from laid off eBay workers and those frustrated with Whitman’s eBay policies towards sellers to shareholders to regular voters – to help us fully vet Meg Whitman’s job application.

And as the campaign goes forward, we’re asking you to help us track what she says, where she says it and make sure it is correct. And if not, we’ll – well, you actually – will call her on it.

Help shed light on the choices Whitman made and the values she demonstrated over a lifetime in the corporate boardroom. Together we can get to the bottom of what Whitman is hiding by refusing to release her income tax returns as nearly every other gubernatorial candidate has done for the last 30 years.

Of course, free speech and civil discourse go hand in hand. We are asking all those participating in WikiMeg to help set an example for how virtual tools can promote genuine democracy. Please be respectful to others. Be factual and always hyperlink to your source. If you are the source of first-hand information, say who you are and how you know what you know.

Here’s how it works:

All pages on the site are open for public editing and the community of users will also review them. If you have information that you would like to share about Meg Whitman, please feel free to edit the pages where the information is categorized or to post new information.

Each page has its own discussion tab where comments and thoughts can be left in a threaded discussion style forum. Live chat is also available for real time conversations.

The initial categories are eBay Stories, Meg History, Meg Sightings, Meg’s Campaign and Videos.

Thanks for participating in the democratic process. Have fun and good hunting…WikiMeg

(Ah, eMeg… – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

Forget the fact the Whitman does not take questions from the press. Forget the fact that she almost never appears at event that is free and open to the public. Forget the fact she is spending millions and millions of corporate dollars to craft a perfect "made for TV" image for the voters that we are supposed to buy, no questions asked.

Remember this: paying someone $3 million dollars for "campaign consulting" and then having them appear in your TV ad as a nuetral 3rd party validator is beyond the pale and not acceptable.    Not too mention – everyone else in the spot used to work for her and made millions of dollars during the dot.com boom as well. Where's the validation in that? How about someone from a charity you helped fund or create?  

If a politician put one of their staff or former staff in a commercial telling people how great they were – it would be roundly criticized and then some. What's the difference here?    

Judge for yourself. Below is our version of Meg's new TV spot with a little truth in advertising. After you watch the video, remember to post it to Facebook or twitter and share it with your friends – we may not have $150 million but we have a lot of friends we did not pay for.