California gubernatorial election, 2010

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Attorney General Jerry Brown was elected as the 39th Governor of California. The California gubernatorial election of 2010 was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2010. Primaries were held on June 8, 2010. Governor- elect Brown will serve his third, non-consecutive term as governor from 2011 - 2015.

Democrat Jerry Brown ran for governor against Republican challenger Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay. Brown and Whitman held debates at the University of California, Davis and the 2010 Women's Conference.

Brown previously served as governor from 1975-1983, and his father, Edmund G. Brown Sr., preceded his service from 1959 to 1967.

Jerry Brown, former two-time Democratic Governor of California (1975-1983) and current Attorney General of "the Golden State" is the [oldest California governor][1] ever elected at the age of 72. A career politician of 40 years, he was the candidate with the political experience in this race. Billionaire Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBAY, who built the once obscure web auction site to one of the most successful and prominent Internet brands, is a [political neophyte][2] who [spent more of her own money][3] on her candidacy than any other self-funded political candidate in U.S. history. Both, with [mudslinging campaigns][4], fought for leadership of a state that is dealing with a $20 billion deficit and tough challenges, ranging from a high [12.4 percent][5] unemployment rate to immigration issues.

Campaign Results

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2010/results/individual/#CAG00

From CNN.com

Candidates

  • Meg Whitman, Republican
  • Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr., Democrat
  • Laura Wells, Green
  • Dale Ogden, Libertarian
  • Carlos Alvarez, Peace and Freedom

Candidates' Major Issues

  • Jerry Brown:

Jobs, higher education, charter schools, environment, clean energy jobs, and pension reform.

  • Meg Whitman:

Job creation, reduced state government spending, reform of the K-12 educational system.

Social Media

As of November 2, 2010, Election Day, Whitman and Brown have a major gap in twitter followers.

Poll Data

Latest CNN poll updated at 10:302 p.m. shows Brown with 50% and Whitman with 45%. http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2010/results/individual/#mapGCA


The New York Times puts Brown at 52.8% and Whitman at 44.3% as of November 2, 2010 at 7:15 p.m (PDT). Their poll aggregates data from many polls. (http://elections.nytimes.com/2010/forecasts/governor/california)

The latest numbers from Rasmussen Reports telephone survey -- as of October 29, 2010 -- show Brown picking up 49% and Whitman drawing in 45%.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2010/election_2010_governor_elections/california/election_2010_california_governor

Los Angeles Times projects Jerry Brown will defeat Meg Whitman for governor. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2010/11/jerry-brown-projected-winner-in-california-governors-race-1.html

Lieutenant Governor's race and candidates

Lieutenant Governor is elected separately and may be from a different political party. For the last 30 years, the two individuals serving have belonged to differing parties. (Lieutenant Governors are occasionally called upon to sign/veto bills.)

  • Abel Maldonado (Incumbent), Republican
  • Gavin Newsom, Democratic
  • Pamela J Brown, Libertarian
  • James "Jimi" Castillo, Green
  • C.T. Weber, Peace and Freedom

For more on these candidates, see:

http://www.good.is/post/good-voter-guide-to-california-lieutenant-governor/ http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/California_lieutenant_gubernatorial_election,_2010

Tip Line

Add below any tips, news, links or items to fact check

Confirmed:

  • Jerry Brown has lost bids for the US presidency 3 times and Senate once. (confirmed)

http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Jerry_Brown_-_Political_Career/id/1529391

Jerry Brown ran for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1976, 1980, 1992.

Ran for Senate in 1982.

  • Brown is a lifelong California resident. (confirmed)

confirmed. http://www.jerrybrown.org/about

  • Brown a champion of collective bargaining rights.
  • Whitman has a spotty voting record -- not a registered voter until 2002 -- via The Sacramento Bee.
  • Unchecked|Jerry Brown is the first two-term serving governor to seek a non-consecutive third term (California enacted a two-term limit in 1990). -Confirmed
  • Meg Whitman appears at Westlake Village rally, refutes poll results: Oct 27
  • Meg Whitman has contributed more than $140 million to her campaign.- confirmed via politico, la times, huffington post
  • In Meg Whitman’s TV commercial, Whitman tells viewers that “the state is in the worst shape that I’ve seen in the 30 years that I have lived in California.”

But although she first moved to California nearly 30 years ago, in 1981, she has not lived in the state continuously since then. For a period during the 1990s, after she left the Walt Disney Co., Whitman moved to Massachusetts with her husband, a brain surgeon who worked at Massachusetts General Hospital. News reports have said she moved in 1992. The Whitman campaign declined to specify when she moved out of state. She returned in March 1998, taking the helm of EBay. via http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2010/02/whitman-tv-ad-fudges-on-how-long-shes-lived-in-state.html and political.


  • Whitman gets last-minute endorsement from Mayor Bloomberg.-confirmed via nytimes, mercury news

Background check

Meg Whitman, Republican

  • Education - Princeton, major in physics and mathematics,1977(confirmed). Whitman is a former trustee at Princeton. MBA from Harvard Business School in 1979 (confirmed)
  • Employment - Brand manager at Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati, Ohio. Consultant and Vice President at Bain & Company's San Francisco office. Vice president of strategic planning at The Walt Disney Company in 1981. Hasbro's Playskool Division General Manager. 1998 CEO of Ebay. (Confirmed) She served as National Finance Co-Chair for Governor Mitt Romney during his 2008 Presidential campaign
  • National Finance Co-Chair for the McCain-Palin campaign
  • Retired from eBay in 2008.
  • Political affiliation - Republican
  • Conflict of interest - With her shares in Goldman Sachs. Their executives donated $100,000 to her campaign. They also manage a portion of her fortune From 1998 to 2002, while she was CEO of eBay, Whitman helped steer millions of dollars of her company’s investment banking business to Goldman, court records show. In 2001, Goldman put Whitman on its corporate board, paying her an estimated $475,000 for little more than a year of part-time service. The company also gave her insider access to the initial public offerings of hot stocks worth millions, according to the records. Whitman, in response has vowed to eliminate any potential conflicts by selling her shares if she does become governor. (confirmed by californiawatch available at: http://californiawatch.org/money-and-politics/whitmans-fortune-entwined-goldman-sachs)
  • Campaign Issues: It came to light in September 2010 that Nicky Diaz Santillan, Whitman's former and longtime housekeeper is an illegal immigrant. Whitman says she fired her right away after learning that information; Diaz disagrees. According to an article in The Washington Post published on October 28,2010, Whitman said that, though it breaks her heart, her former housekeeper should be deported.

Jerry Brown, Democrat

  • Education - Brown graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1961, with a major in Classics (confirmed). He graduated from Yale Law School in 1964. (confirmed).
  • Employment - law clerk to California Supreme Court Justice Mathew Tobriner, TK, Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees (1969), Secretary of State (1971-1975), Governor of California (1975-1983), Mayor of Oakland (1999-2007)
  • Currently Attorney General for California.
  • Political affiliation - Democrat
  • Conflict of interest - While Brown was Oakland Mayor he won a legal battle against the state political watchdog agency he helped create, clearing the way for his involvement in downtown development near his home. Brown sued the Fair Political Practices Commission, after its refusal to exempt him from state conflict-of-interest rules. The state Court of Appeal in San Francisco ruled that Oakland's city charter and Brown's strong-mayor initiative require his involvement in development plans, even if they could increase the value of his property. He helped write the Political Reform Act of 1974, a landmark government ethics initiative that bars officials from making decisions that could benefit them financially. The commission ruled that the law barred him from participating in downtown Oakland redevelopment projects because he co-owns a live-work compound and converted warehouse in the targeted area. The commission said it was "reasonably foreseeable" that the redevelopment could increase the value of the mayor's property. Brown argued that an official with a conflict of interest is not barred from participation if his actions are "legally required."(confirmed by SFGate & The California Planning & Development Report and LA Times back from 2000 at http://www.cp-dr.com/node/1224)

Campaign ads

"At the annual Women's Conference in Long Beach, Matt Lauer asked both candidates if they would be willing to stop airing negative ads about each other for the last week before the midterm elections. Whitman was booed for refusing, and Brown used her response in yet another ad." Brown agreed, if Whitman would assent. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-1027-campaign-20101027,0,7851495.story?track=rss

Video from the conference converted into a Jerry Brown ad:

Meg Whiman's Ads

Meg Get Out the Vote

Statements to check

  • This campaign ad doesn't have any facts to refute.

Meg Whitman Cop Ad

Ad Statements

“Remodeling was planned before Brown took office and was to make room for 12 additional attorneys.” via the LA Times (http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/16/local/la-me-0716-whitman-20100716/2)

  • "Jerry brown opposes the death penalty..." -James Linder, Police Sergeant ..."even for cop killers." -Scott Burkett, Police Officer. Brown showed that he was opposed to the death penalty by vetoing a death penalty bill when he was governor in 1977. Confirmed via SF gate.

Meg Whitman Jobs Plan

Ad Statements

Meg will:

  • Simplify regulations.
  • Cut sales tax on factory equipment.
  • Expand research and development tax credit.
  • Create new incentives for green jobs.
  • Cut fees and red tape on small businesses.
  • Eliminate the $800 new business tax required for start-ups.

Again Ad

Ad Statements

After asked what he lied about while governor, Jerry Brown replies, "It's all a lie. ... The assumption is, oh, I know what to do. You don't. You can have a plan for California. You say you're gonna lower taxes, you're gonna put people to work, you're gonna improve the schools ... you're gonna stop crime; crime is up, schools are worse, taxes are higher, I mean be real. I didn't have a plan for California. It's all a lie."

Orbit Ad

Ad Statements

The real Brown plan:

  • More spending on out-of-control state pensions.
  • More favors for the big teachers’ union, blocking education reform.
  • More job-killing taxes and regulations.
  • More of the same old failure from Sacramento

Jerry Brown's Ads

Jerry Brown: "Echo"; October 19, 2010


Statements to check

  • (how similar are Whitman's plans w/ Schwarzenegger's record)

Whitman responded to the ad by telling reporters in Oakland that Schwarzenegger had good ideas but did not execute them well. The billionaire former eBay chief executive also said the ad failed to acknowledge their different backgrounds—his as an actor, hers as an experienced businesswoman.

On state worker's, Gov. Schwarzenegger announced two-day-a-month furloughs for state workers, which effectively reduced worker pay but did little to help our long-term economic crisis. In fact, economists report that the furloughs will result in a loss of $503 million over the subsequent years. When asked at the time what she would do to balance the budget, Whitman said that she would double the furloughs to four days a week, even though the furloughs actually caused the state to lose money.

When Schwarzenegger increased the furloughs to three days a month, Whitman announced that she plans to fire 40,000 state workers because she believes the state is "over-staffed" Whitman supports Schwarzenegger's proposals, which include raising the retirement age, increasing what workers pay into the pension and ending defined-benefit pensions for new hires and sticking them in risky 401(k)-style retirement plans.

Real Meg

Statements to check

  • Serving on the board of Goldman Sachs, Whitman made millions from insider stock deals. (confirmed)
  • Ebay stockholders sued and forced her to pay $ back. (confirmed)

After Wall Street whistleblowers exposed the practice of IPO spinning, small investors and lawmakers were outraged. Regular eBay shareholders sued, and the Delaware judge hearing the case accused Whitman and other company executives of conflict of interest. Whitman and two others paid millions to settle the lawsuit in 2005, admitting no wrongdoing

http://www.sacbee.com/2009/12/31/2508654/did-meg-whitman-improperly-receive.html

  • Whitman paid herself $120 million right before she laid off 10% of her workers. [6]

Forbes magazine calculated Whitman's overall earnings at just more than $120 million, including the value of stock options she exercised. But it is inaccurate to say that she "paid herself." Her earnings were approved by eBay's governing board.

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/10/08/3088780/adwatch-brown-attack-of-whitman.html

Whitman Coming To California Ad

Statements to check

Meg Whitman: “You know, thirty years ago, anything was possible in this state.”

Who was governor 30 years ago? Jerry Brown.

Thirty years ago, as governor, Jerry Brown:

Meg Whitman: "I mean it's why I came to California a few years ago."

  • It is interesting to note that Whitman is telling the story of what a great place California was 30 years ago in the video, but Jerry Brown was governor 30 years ago.

"Whitman's Lies" Ad


Statements to check

  • "Taxes went down under Jerry Brown." (confirmed)

Based on these most recent figures, state taxes — measured as a portion of each $100 of personal income — increased during four of Brown’s eight years, and during six of those years they were higher than before he took office. But they were lower during his final two years.

http://factcheck.org/2010/09/jerry-brown-and-california-taxes/


Campaign Spending

(Main Candidates)

  • Meg Whitman (Republican Party) spent about $148,745,210 for her campaign
  • Jerry Brown (Democratic Party) spent about $27,504,007 for his campaign

http://www.followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/state_candidates.phtml?s=CA&y=2010


External links

Retrieved from "http://www.wikifactcheck.org/wiki/California_gubernatorial_election,_2010"
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