Just the other day, I won an auction on eBay, purchasing the Lil’ Lion Elite costume for my son, Matthew, who will be celebrating his second Halloween this year.
As I was completing this transaction on the world’s largest internet auction site, I had three thoughts. The first was that I was thrilled that someone didn’t come along in the final seconds of the auction and beat my offer. The second was that my wife would be thrilled that I "got" the costume. And lastly, it made me realize I hadn’t really given much coverage here on the 
FlashReport to the rising GOP phenomenon of Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay who now has such a high profile within the GOP that the party’s nominee for President, Senator McCain, mentioned her specifically as a potential pick to serve as Treasury Secretary should he be elected.
Of course, McCain’s mid-debate reference to Whitman can be attributed to the very visible and significant role that she is playing in the campaign Arizona’s senior Senator. Whitman is a National Co-Chairman of the Presidential campaign. Whitman was even a speaker at the Republican National Convention! (See the photo below)
If you want to get a picture of the frenetic pace at which she is campaigning for the McCain-Palin ticket, just look at the last 48 hours. On Wednesday, Whitman was in Texas keynoting a Women for McCain-Palin event, and was a special guest as a private McCain-Palin fundraising event. Yesterday, at the invitation of Texas Governor Rick Perry, Whitman delivered the keynote address to the Texas Conference for Women (typical of the Lone Star State, where nothing is small, this event had over 7,000 attendees). Today she is in Florida, campaigning with Senator McCain and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. To date she has attended 23 fundraising events around the country for McCain-Palin. All of this in addition to serving as a senior economic advisor to the campaign. Whew, I got winded just typing up this paragraph of activity…
I find it particularly impressive that Whitman is doing all of this for the candidate who, frankly, was not her first choice to be the nominee. Whitman was inspired to get involved in this cycle’s Presidential politics because her close friend, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, was running. She played an integral role in Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign as a policy advisor and as National Finance Director. I am close to many of the folks on Team Romney, who speak very highly of the energy and leadership she exhibited in Romney’s impressive effort.
I’m told that for the final close, Whitman will be focusing her activities her in the Golden State, traveling widely to attend fundraising and grassroots events in support of the Republican ticket, from President to targeted legislative races. Whitman’s efforts here in California, according to her team, include helping to raise more than $7.5 million for the California Republican Party’s Victory Program efforts, including a personal contribution of $150,000. She has also chipped in $200,000 towards the passage of Proposition 11, the fair redistricting measure on the November ballot. Whitman is apparently also focused on local California races, including a fundraising event for the GOP challenger Dean Andal in the competitive 11th Congressional District.
All of this talk of Whitman’s California activities is a great transition to a look at Whitman and the race for California Governor in 2010. Not too long ago, uber-wealthy California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner announced the formation of an Exploratory Committee for Governor. Political pundits say that Poizner jumped in so early in order to try and "encourage" Whitman, who is considering a bid of her own for the GOP nomination for Governor, not to run. We’ll know fairly soon if he was successful or not. Whitman has been meeting with Republican leaders around California, making it clear that she is carefully considering a run, with no formal decision to be made before this November’s Presidential election.
Whitman has pulled together some top notch political advisors to guide her through her decision-making process. It was rather widely disseminated in GOP inner circles that Steve Schmidt and Adam Mendelsohn, both of Mercury Public Affairs, had been brought on board by Whitman. After the GOP convention, there was a rumor that there had been a parting of the ways, but we’ve verified that this is not the case. Schmidt, of course, famously ran Schwarzenegger’s re-election campaign in 2006 and is now one of the most influential members of the McCain campaign inner-circle. Mendelsohn was Schwarzenegger’s Communications Director, and has been lending a hand with things McCain. It will be interesting to see how these two capable operatives, so tied to a Governor who is quite unpopular with the GOP base, will fare maneuvering Whitman through a Republican primary.
Of course, while the "Mercury Duo" is embroiled in Presidential politics, Whitman also has recruited for her team someone whose eyes are trained exclusively here on the Golden State — hiring Jeff Randle and his team at Randle Communications (this includes firm partner Mitch Zak and a seasoned team of politicos). Randle is a long-time veteran of gubernatorial campaigns. Jeff was very involved all of former Governor Pete Wilson’s political efforts, and served for some time in his administration. He also was involved quite a bit with Team Arnold, with the Governator’s campaigns in both the 2003 recall and the 2006 re-election. I have had many opportunities to interface with Jeff over the two decades we’ve known each other (time flies), and respect him for his political acumen and ability to drive a team effort. If Whitman jumps into the race for Governor, Whitman will likely find Randle’s specific experience and contacts to be quite useful.
The decision for Whitman on whether to run for Governor won’t be an easy one. The first hurdle, of course, is the potential of being pressed into service in the federal government by President John McCain, should he be victorious. After that comes the very real specter of what would promise to be one of the most expensive and bruising GOP primaries in California history (ironically from our perspective, between two Bay Area self-described "fiscally conservative, socially moderate" GOPers). Finally, taking on the Democrat nominee (whether DiFi, Brown or whomever) will be daunting in this "blue" of a state. Also, in the primary, Whitman would have the handicap of being a relatively new Republican (I believe her first election as a Republican voter was this year’s GOP Presidential primary) and the fact that in California politics, she is very much unknown, with her specific positions on the issues being a question in the minds of many.
Meg Whitman has moxie, a track record of doing — frankly — amazing things at eBay, and it doesn’t hurt that her tremendous success at eBay has left her worth many hundreds of millions of dollars, in addition to being considered one of American’s most successful CEO’s. While I have yet to spend any significant time with Whitman, it is my hope that sooner than later I will be able to do so, and then bring you my own assessment of her as a person, and a potential Gubernatorial candidate. That said, there is no doubt that Whitman has a lot of ability and talent that she could bring to bear in the office of Governor.
I wouldn’t look for any public statements or pronouncements from Whitman over the next few weeks about a potential Gubernatorial race. But you can be sure that her focus on California events and travel for the duration of this Presidential campaign is by design. She’ll be working hard to election John McCain and Sarah Palin — and contemplating what will be the most significant political decision of her life…
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