Behind a velvet curtain just a few feet from where Whitman stands, campaign staffers are working hard to ensure she gets a chance to fix that. There, in a makeshift studio decorated only by a spray of delphinium, they are busily videotaping testimonials from several smart-looking women plucked from the crowd who say they will vote for Whitman. Within hours, that footage will be up on megwhitman.com, her official Web site, which was created by former eBay executives and is far more elaborate than the sites of her male rivals. Its distinctly feminine design is aimed directly at women, the voters Whitman says have had a major role in deciding every California election in the past 20 years. On the site, a woman named Lydia Beebe, the corporate secretary for Chevron Corp., explains why she joined Whitman’s MEGaWomen grassroots organization. “Meg has brought appeal beyond the Republican party,” Beebe says, predicting that Whitman’s pragmatism will win over voters “who might not otherwise be attracted to somebody with an R after their name.”
One of Whitman’s more controversial proposals is to suspend for a year the state’s compliance with Assembly Bill 32, which requires California to reduce greenhouse emissions by roughly 25 percent by 2020. She insists that she is an environmentalist but that now is not the time to embark on any programs that might drive business away. The extent to which the regulations might repel jobs has been the subject of past debate, but Whitman, with her instinct for data, says she’d keep relentless track. “We ought to have a digital billboard outside the governor’s office where we say how many jobs left for neighboring states this week, this month,” she says. “And until that number turns black, as opposed to bleeding jobs, then our job is not done. What I know from life is that when everyone’s focused on one number, somehow that number gets fixed.”
Her plan for eliminating 40,000 state positions has also drawn fire, even from the office of fellow-Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, which pointed out that many state jobs don’t fall under the governor’s control. (Some have said that to achieve those cuts Whitman would have to fire so many corrections officers that it would be a threat to public safety.) But Whitman stands firm on her overall message. “Being CEO of the state is not a popularity contest,” she once said. “In the real world, business leaders cut expenses until the company is healthy again.”
Whitman’s biggest political black eye so far has been her frequent failure to vote. She didn’t cast a ballot for president in 2000, for instance, or in the election that recalled Governor Gray Davis and replaced him with Schwarzenegger. “It was a mistake,” she says whenever she is asked about it. “I should have voted, and I didn’t.” Lately she has offered more of an excuse, telling Fortune: “I was head down, building eBay, with two teenage sons and a neurosurgeon husband and traveling half the time.”
If there’s one feeling that multitasking women can understand, it’s that one. Which is why, despite the best efforts of some of her rivals, her spotty voting record may prove to be a nonstarter. Also going for her are some big-name endorsements: from Mitt Romney, for whose presidential run she raised $12 million; John McCain (she served as his national co-chair after Romney dropped out of the race); former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani; and former two-term California governor Pete Wilson, who is the chair of her campaign.
And then there’s her money—all billion-plus dollars of it—which she has been spending freely: The Los Angeles Times reported that from January to June 2009, the Whitman campaign spent $111,706 just on chartering planes, almost as much as the $147,030 that her Republican rival Tom Campbell spent on his entire campaign. And this may be just the beginning. “[She has said] she’s willing to spend $150 million of her own money on this campaign. That’s the budget of some countries,” says Larry Gerston, a political science professor at San Jose State University. “And to the extent she follows through with it, that will color the race a lot.”
Whitman is unapologetic. “[As of July 2009], the campaign has raised more than $6.7 million,” she says. “I’ve matched the enthusiasm of my donors by contributing $19 million since February. I’m prepared to invest whatever it takes to communicate my message to Californians and to have an opportunity to address the problems of the state.” Based on those numbers, she has done far more than “match” her donors’ contributions, but money alone may not be enough to secure victory. In New York in November 2009, Mike Bloomberg won a third term as mayor by a margin of less than five percentage points, despite running the most expensive self-financed campaign in U.S. history. (He spent over $100 million, more than 10 times his main rival’s outlay.) In California in 2006, venture capitalist Steve Westly poured $35 million of his own money into his campaign for governor, only to lose the Democratic primary.
