Need video footage of Meg Whitman events for your local news broadcast? Well, she’ll be happy to send it to you, free of charge:

Are you concerned about the decline in quality of the political media? Well, fear not. Meg Whitman has offered to fill in the gaps where the old-fashioned free press has faltered.

Whitman’s campaign has put television stations around the state on notice that it will be sending daily video images of the candidate on the campaign trail, just in case a station wants to put any of them on the air.

“We are starting something brand new at the Whitman campaign … so you can more easily provide your viewers with breaking news from California’s gubernatorial campaign,” the campaign wrote in a statement.(LA Times)

That’s it, no need to send a reporter to “ask questions” when you can just roll Meg Whitman’s video press release.

You know who else did this? Well, George W Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger, that’s who.  Conveniently enough, you can even cut out the credits and roll them like they were real news! So, the White House just literally provided news footage to some small news programs.  How very Politburo of the Whitman campaign (and the Bush White House…but we really need not say that, do we?).  

Think about this for a second, and think of the resources that must have been dedicated to such a project:

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman’s campaign is sending out about half a million copies of her 48-page policy booklet to households across California, most of them Republican, said Whitman press secretary Sarah Pompei.(SacBee)

That’s half a million copies. The postage alone costs several hundred thousand dollars. And then there’s the fact that publication of this thing probably costs quite a bit to print. It’s 48 pages in stunning color. That kind of print run plus postage is going to run you about a buck per copy (perhaps more).

But, don’t worry, the profligacy ends the day she becomes governor.  Then, she’ll really show how spending massive amounts of campaign cash can turn into a recipe for spending controls!

Meg Whitman is a billionaire. Everybody knows that.  But one of the cool things about being a billionaire is that it just sort of feeds on itself. Once you are that rich, people like to give you stuff to make you happy. Like say eBay’s board even as her company’s shares are sliding and Goldman Sachs during her (very short) tenure as a director. It must be nice:

Meg Whitman is already getting off to being a third term of Arnold Schwarzenegger. She says one thing and then does the complete opposite.  She plays for the middle now on the flood of TV ads, but you can bet she’ll head hard right when she gets the chance to finish the shock doctrine job that Arnold has been working on for 7 years.

In the 2007-08 campaign cycle, 14 states elected a new governor (and lt. governor).  146 candidates ran for those positions, and 60 of them self-financed. But none of them were Meg Whitman.

In a new report by CalWatch, the numbers for those 60 candidates are compared to eMeg.  And the numbers aren’t all that shocking.

60 spent a combined total of $47 million financing their own campaigns.

With her most recent “incremental investment” of $20 million this week, Whitman has now pumped $59 million into her own campaign, and there are still seven months to go before Election Day. (CalWatch)

Of course, compared to Mike Bloomberg’s $109 million to win the Mayor’s race last year, it’s still a relatively small amount. However, Meg still has several months to go, never underestimate her ambition…or her bank account.

John Myers looks at the question of Whitman’s spending slightly different in this story from the California Report.

Typically, the question is whether voters will be sick of all of her ads.  And the answer is yes, IMHO anyway. But the question should be, will being sick of those ads make people not vote for her, and that’s a much tougher nut to crack.

The thing about Whitman’s expenditures is that she hasn’t built any grassroots armies. She’s spent the money on Mike Murphy and his consultant friends, a legion of campaign staff, and more TV time than has ever been purchased for a gubernatorial campaign.  Hardly spending that makes you want to get up off your seat and cheer.

So, will this make the voters care more or less about her spending? That’s a good question. Most voters won’t even know that’s where her money goes, so it isn’t even clear if there are enough voters that care about this issue to even matter.  But, if Jerry’s got one strength at this point, it’s Whitman herself and her big-spending ways while she lives high off the hog.  

P.s. I hope the $350K of jet expenses were worth it.

In a multi-million dollar TV ad blitz that will air throughout the state next week, GOP candidate Meg Whitman will announce that she’s auctioning parts of her campaign platform on eBay to shape her priorities as Governor.  “I’ve been on a listening tour for months,” she explained – in a tightly controlled press conference where reporters were not allowed to ask questions.  “And one thing I have learned over and over again is how California has innovative people with good ideas – who are willing to put their money where their mouth is.  We must tap into that entrepreneurial spirit if we’re going to cut taxes, fix education and balance the budget.”  While her Republican primary opponent Steve Poizner insults East San Jose kids by saying they lack “Silicon Valley ambition and smarts,” Whitman is taking her case directly to the people – who can speak by putting down bids.  Observers also say it will present a good contrast with her Democratic opponent, Jerry Brown.

Whitman explained that she got the idea from Arnold Schwarzenegger – who last July announced that he would cut the deficit by autographing state-commissioned cars, and then auction them to the highest bidder.  “It started as a suggestion that the Governor got from Twitter,” said Whitman, “so it very nicely proves how we use the Internet to solicit good ideas.  But I want to take Arnold’s idea a step further.  When people use money, they get results.”

Citing the Citizens United case which re-affirmed the First Amendment principle that money is speech, Whitman’s handlers told the press that collective bids on particular platform items will shape how her Administration will govern California.  Users can put bids on her proposals they like the most – such as:

* eliminate the state capital gains tax

* reform workers compensation laws

* repeal AB 32 (the global warming bill)

* defend the two-thirds budget rule

* place a strict spending cap

* lay off 40,000 state employees

* deny prisoners health care

* tighten welfare rules

* more charter schools, and

* end Sanctuary cities.

“All these proposals are in my platform already – and can be viewed at my campaign website,” said Whitman.  “But I want to know what should be my priorities – and people who can put their money down can show which issues will matter the most.  I’m excited to see how high the bids will go, and how much money it will raise for my campaign.”

Executives at Chevron in San Ramon expressed great enthusiasm for repealing AB 32, and expect to donate several thousand dollars for that platform item.  Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer’s Association is excited about protecting the two-thirds budget requirement – and will be asking its members to submit their bids to target that priority.

BeyondChron sent an e-mail to the Jerry Brown campaign to ask for a reaction to Meg Whitman’s proposal.  As of our deadline we had not yet gotten a response, and there is no public statement about it on his website.

First published at BeyondChron.

I’m kind of divided on this. Do we kill the trees or do we have Meg Whitman waste some of her money? Ok, sorry, trees, but I’m going to humbly suggest that everybody order a copy of Meg Whitman’s policy “magazine” here.  It’s a glossy 48 page model of production values, and it can be yours at the low, low price of a bit of your sanity.

But, if you miss your chance to order one, Whitman’s hoping to get them into your local public library.  Yeah, you read that right. She sent them to 1600+ public libraries to be displayed along side other periodicals.

“I encourage the libraries to display my magazine in their periodicals section so voters can gain a clear understanding of how I will govern, if elected in November,” Whitman said in a statement. It was unclear if the magazines could be checked out or would have to be viewed in the reference section.(LA Times)

If this idea strikes you as sketchy, that’s because it is quite possibly illegal. Steve Poizner’s folks dug up a law about public funds going towards campaigns, and it is quite possibly in play here. (Over the flip.) While the placement of one magazine on the rack doesn’t cost the library a ton, it does displace other materials and does require the librarian’s attention. (Right, shayera?) That’s a non-zero amount of money.

Furthermore, the audacity of a campaign to try to get this clear campaign literature into the public libraries is incredible.   But hey, why not, rules aren’t meant for billionaires, right?

Anyway, order your Meg-o-zine today. And for 5,000 of your closest friends.

Cal Gov Code § 8314 (2010)

§ 8314.  Unlawful use of state resources; Penalties

(a) It is unlawful for any elected state or local officer, including any state or local appointee, employee, or consultant, to use or permit others to use public resources for a campaign activity, or personal or other purposes which are not authorized by law.

Cal Gov Code § 54964 (2009)

§ 54964.  Unlawful expenditure

  1. An officer, employee, or consultant of a local agency may not expend or authorize the expenditure of any of the funds of the local agency to support or oppose the approval or rejection of a ballot measure, or the election or defeat of a candidate, by the voters.

Usually when you come out with a campaign book, they tend to be banal. And they certainly don’t try to attack anybody.  But Steve Poizner has always been something of a wild card, so why not call students at the school that he taught kinda slow?  Here’s what he said about students at Mt. Pleasant High School

From an intellectual standpoint, I absolutely know not to expect Silicon Valley-type caliber ambition and smarts from East San Jose schoolkids.

This is offensive in the extreme, and a rookie political move. Look, money, and the good fortune of running against Cruz Bustamante have made him a formidable candidate, even with those poll numbers showing a huge deficit to Meg Whitman.  But, sometimes you have to marvel that he could get to where he is while saying some Bell Curve-y nonsense.

Poizner needs to apologize to these students, and to the entire community. America is supposed to be about the promise of tomorrow and upward mobility.  Poizner seems more interested in knocking those at the bottom rungs of the social strata off the ladder completely.