Over the weekend the Whitman for Governor campaign sent out a "campaign update" from Campaign Manager (and FR friend) Jillian Hasner. These broader campaign updates are released by both campaigns periodically and we try to put them up here on the FR Blog.
In this email, Hasner says that the campaign will be announcing an endorsement from former Secretary of State Bruce McPherson early this week. Actually, I suppose the email was the announcement, eh?
McPherson is controversial these days in GOP circles for his support of the so-called "open primary" — a measure which is a direct assault on the Republican Party. It is important that everyone understand that unlike previous "open primary" measures, this one would take away from the Republican Party the right to have a candidate on general election ballots. So literally huge swaths of California would have no GOP standard bearer every November.
That said, I’ll vouch for one immutable fact, McPherson is one of the nicest and most genuine people I’ve had a chance to work with in politics.
WHITMAN CAMPAIGN UPDATE E-MAIL
TO: Campaign Supporters
FROM: Jillian Hasner, Campaign Manager
DATE: January 23, 2010
RE: Campaign Update
As we roll into 2010, I want to make certain you’re up to date on the campaign. Meg’s paid media campaign, polling results, grassroots organization, and endorsements indicate significant strength as we move toward victory in 2010.
Highlighting her growing support, on Monday our campaign will announce that former California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson is endorsing Meg’s candidacy. McPherson’s reason for supporting Meg perfectly captures what we all believe.
"Californians are looking for a problem solver who can provide focused, disciplined leadership. Meg Whitman will create jobs, restore fiscal sanity in Sacramento and beat Jerry Brown in November." – Former California Secretary Of State Bruce McPherson
Polling: Meg is The Right Leader At The Right Time
On Friday, The Field Poll released new results showing that Meg is continuing to gain momentum among California’s likely voters. In a head-to-head match-up, Meg currently leads Steve Poizner by 28 points or a nearly 3-to-1 margin. When matched up against the likely Democratic nominee, Jerry Brown, Meg is clearly the strongest Republican. She has gained 11 points on Jerry Brown since the last Field Poll in October. On Friday, Rasmussen Reports also found Meg in a close race with Brown, just 4 percentage points behind.
Organization: Groundswell of Republican Support
Former Secretary of State Bruce McPherson’s endorsement is just the latest pledge of support from California Republican leaders. Since announcing her campaign, Meg has received endorsements from the state’s leading Republicans, including former Governor Pete Wilson, Congressman Darrell Issa, and 2002 gubernatorial nominee Bill Simon, to name just a few.
Meg is also the only candidate who has announced a statewide grassroots network. Unlike her Republican rival, Meg has announced 86 regional and county chairs and co-chairs who represent every county in the state. Her support among conservative activists is growing and, even at this early stage, the campaign is on pace to meet its ambitious voter turnout goals
Fundraising
Meg is Raising the Resources to Win Our campaign currently has $30.5 million cash-on-hand, which is $13 million more than our primary opponent. In 2009 alone, Meg raised $10.2 million from donors. And despite being the last candidate to join the race, Meg has raised $4 for every $1 raised by Steve Poizner. California’s donors are showing overwhelming enthusiasm for Meg’s style of leadership. This enthusiasm will translate into more paid voter contact and a better chance of victory on Election Day.
Paid Media: Sustained and Effective
Meg’s radio campaign, now entering its fifth month, has successfully helped introduce Meg to Californians. According to The Field Poll, a considerably larger percentage of voters now have an opinion of Meg than did last fall. And she has a 9 percentage point edge over Poizner among Republicans giving a positive favorability rating. Last fall, Poizner had a slightly higher rating than Meg.
The campaign is also making great strides in its online reach
Meg has 230,000 followers on Twitter, 7,300 fans on Facebook and she has more followers on Scribd than President Obama. MegWhitman.com’s traffic has grown more than 200 percent since our radio ads launched in September.
Voters will continue to hear about Meg’s ideas for California. Last week we launched our latest radio ad focused on welfare reform. Meg believes fixing our broken welfare system is just one of the ways we can cut spending and get our fiscal house in order.
The statewide radio campaign is just the first phase of a comprehensive media strategy that will introduce Meg, her vision and her ideas to virtually all Californians.
Thank you for all your support of Meg and her efforts to build A New California.
January 26th, 2010 at 12:00 am
Meg or Steve-I would be happy to work with either one of them. Which one will be most effective in reversing the major damage to our economy done by the left’s slobbering love affair with big government? I think Meg has a bigger vision for reduced government from what I sense.
I met both Meg and Steve in September. I offered myself to become Meg’s government reduction czar should we both win our elections. She has a good fist bump. I like Steve’s 10/10/10 thing. I can swig with that too, but that will take agressive rihgt sizing of the State government.
We need a Guv who can jump in there, use many of the left’s playbook strategies against them,let every judge in the state be hoping mad and then tell them to shut up. That has been working well in Oklahoma. The greatest State of the Union may have to look to smaller and more effective states for some examples and leadership.