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Meg Whitman Cashes Out, Concedes Gubernatorial Race
'Meg Whitman was outbid by rival Jerry Brown.' Or: 'Turns out the "Buy it Now" option doesn't work when you're bidding for Governor'. The eBay auction-themed digs are plentiful this morning when it comes to billionaire Republican Meg Whitman's loss in California's gubernatorial race.
Last night at her intended victory gathering at Universal City, Whitman ultimately conceded the race to rival Jerry Brown. After telling her crowd of supporters she'd made the call to Brown to congratulate him on his win, Whitman said: "It is time now for Californians to unite behind the common cause of turning around this state that we love," according to an AP report published by the Christian Science Monitor.
During the campaign, Whitman spent $140 million of her own money, but despite being affiliated with a brand that the public generally respects--eBay--she wound up losing in what one CNN columnist calls "a spectacular fashion," in an opinion piece. Why did Whitman lose?
According to CNN's Ruben Navarrette Jr.:
For one thing, she never connected with voters and that hurt her when the Brown campaign started pushing the message that she was this rich empress who lived in a bubble and couldn't relate to average Californians. For another, she never proved she was up to the job of being governor of the nation's most populous state. Then there was the fact that the unions really delivered for Brown, especially in terms of direct mail -- in both English and Spanish.
Whitman's business savvy--though being one of the cornerstone's of her campaign--ultimately didn't wash with voters, says Politico, and scandals like the one surrounding her former housekeeper didn't help.
What's next for Meg Whitman? At the very least, whatever she does, like the rest of Californians on the day-after Election 2010, it won't involve recreational marijuana, thanks to the defeat of Prop 19 points out the Jewish Journal: "To add insult to injury, Meg Whitman can’t even console herself with a big fat joint to take the edge off. Damn it California, how much can one woman take?"
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