Whitman, Brown offer contrasting campaign styles

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elections Politics State

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(From the sacbee.com) One gubernatorial campaign employs nearly 70 people and contracts with dozens of others as it spares no expense finding new ways to craft and broadcast its messages. Another relies largely on the spontaneity of its candidate with minimal infrastructure and almost nothing in the way of marketing dazzle.

The candidates are Republican Meg Whitman and her Democratic opponent Jerry Brown, and their battle for the governor’s office is shaping up as a study in contrasting campaign styles.

The billionaire Republican has put $91 million of her own money in the race. Brown, who is worth several million dollars, has put $6,500 of his money into the campaign; as of mid-May he had spent $321,801 in campaign funds and was employing six paid staffers.

Brown has tried to make Whitman’s spending a top issue, while the Whitman camp counters that it’s going up against not just Brown but his union allies, who are already running TV ads criticizing the Republican. Whitman also spent money fighting a competitive primary, while Brown faced no major opposition in the June 8 primary.

What’s clear is the two candidates are setting new standards both in campaign extravagance and frugality, political observers said.

Comments

1 · as published

Kevin D. Korenthal
Kevin D. Korenthal Says: June 29th, 2010 at 2:43 pm While Brown saves his $ for a last-ditch effort, in the closing days of the election, to smear Whitman, BIG LABOR is spearing no expense. Going by the intentionally misleading name, California Working Families for Brown, BIG LABOR intends to spend every dime it can steal from workers paychecks and fringe benefit funds to hand this election to Jerry Brown. There could not be 2 more contracting candidates before the California electorate this year. Brown will add more power to the already powerful union bureaucracy while Meg Whitman will work to remove the inane and harmful regulations placed into California law by the unions. An example of such being the Labor Code language that says that a non-union apprenticeship program cannot set up shop in a physical region where a union program for the same trade already exists.