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But $20 million of that was given to her gubernatorial campaign out of her own personal bank account, Meg Whitman's campaign announced this morning after campaign records for the first 2 1/2 months of the year were filed last night. In all, the former eBay CEO spent $27.2 million in that same period--$25 million of that went to TV, radio and other direct marketing--with some of the money coming from last year, when she gave $19 million to the campaign. She's prepared to spend a total of $150 million, she has said.
Compare that to her Republican rival Steve Poizner, who raised $204,031 and spent $3.1 million (he previously gave himself $19 million) during the same time period. In the most recent Field Poll, Whitman has a 10 to 1 margin over Poizner. He has $14.9 million in cash on hand while Whitman has $4.5 million.
As for Democrat Jerry Brown, he raised $9.8 million and is in a dead heat with Whitman according to the same Field Poll. He has $14.1 million cash on hand and spent $144,101.97 in the last 2 1/2 months.