It’s mid-January of what is supposed to be the “off year” for campaigns, but let me assure you that everything is “on” when we talk about the volume of activity taking place in what are the first few lengths of a very long horse race for the GOP nomination for Governor in 2010.
With our focus on the overspending crisis in the Capitol, there have been a number of items building up, so we’ll try to give you one comprehensive “cleaning out” of the GOP Governor 2010 inbox:
MEG WHITMAN BRINGS ON SOME NEW “TALENT”
Officially Rob Stutzman is now part of a group of people helping Meg Whitman assess whether she will seek the Gubernatorial bid. But you can be sure that as soon as Whitman makes her big announcement (sources say that may be as early as next week), she’ll be formally rolling out the leadership team for her campaign, and look for Rob Stutzman to be front and center. I have known Rob for many, many years (if you go back far enough, he voted for me when I was elected President of the California Republican Assembly back in 1995, when he was President of CRA’s Sacramento Unit). Rob, currently with Navigators, has a storied career as a top notch communications professional (see his resume here).
Also joining “Team Whitman” is veteran hands-on politico Todd Cranney. Most recently, Cranney worked as COS for now-retired Assemblyman George Plescia and was Assembyman Nathan Fletcher’s campaign manager. Previous to that however was a long stint with the Presidential campaign of Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (presumably where he met Whitman).
Stutzman and Cranney join with Jeff Randle and Mitch Zak, who have been advising Whitman for some time now.
POIZNER ANNOUNCES CAMPAIGN STEERING COMMITTEE
Poizner’s campaign announced that the following folks will be serving on his Steering Committee: 
William Bloomfield, Katherine Boyd, Elliott Broidy, Hon. Jim Brulte, Brad Freeman, Susan Groff, Brian Harvey, Jeff Henley, Buck Johns, Linda Law, Paula Kent Meehan, Steve Merksamer, Burt McMurtry, Deedee McMurtry, Frank G. Myers, Susan Myers, Charles Munger Jr., Mick Pattinson, Ron Plotkin, Lenny Sands, Mary Belle Snow, Hon. Michelle Park Steel, Marc Stern, Hon. Van Tran, Frank Visco, Hon. Mimi Walters and Buzz Woolley.
W
e really look at this as more of a Finance Committee with a fancy title. Because when you look at the makeup of those on it, many of these folks are part of the uber-wealthy GOP donor types, with a smattering of elected officials thrown in.
- Elliott Broidy is a big score for Poizner. Most recently having served as the Finance Chairman for the Republican National Committee, this businessman’s endorsement is not easy to come by.
- Brad Freeman was fundraising Kingpin for the 2000 and 2004 campaigns of President George W. Bush, and his prowess at getting his associates to “cough up the cash” is well known and regarded.
- Dr. Charles Munger’s presence is not a surprise. Munger has allied with Poizner on many projects including the quest for fair redistricting, and last year’s successful effort to oppose Proposition 93 to weaken term limits for state legislators.
- William “Buck” Johns is at the epicenter of politics in Orange and San Bernardino Counties. While he has a multi-decade track record of political involvement, a big uptick in his business success has brought him to a new level.
- William Bloomfield’s support for Poizner is a coup of sorts – as he played a huge role, financially, in the McCain structure.
- Katherine Boyd, also a long standing icon in the GOP California fundraising community, sits on the Board of the prestigious Capitol Resource Institute.
- Frank Visco, in addition to being a very successful businessman, is a former Chairman of the California GOP.
You can see their campaign release here, which includes biographical statements on all of these folks.
WHITMAN DC TRIP
Last week, Meg Whitman traveled to Washington, D.C., where she testified (along with her former co-worker at Bain Capital, Mitt Romney) before the House Republican Economic Recovery Working Group. (Read her testimony here.)
Whitman appeared with House GOP Whip Eric Cantor on CNBC. FR tracked down the video clip here.
While in D.C., Whitman was invited to speak to the California Congressional Delegation at their weekly meeting, and met with a number of California delegation members one-on-one, including Representatives Kevin McCarthy, David Dreier, Buck McKeon, Ed Royce and Mary Bono Mack.
MORE POIZNER: NEW CONSULTANTS, A NEW COLUMN, AND A PLACE FROM WHICH TO WORK!
Recently, Steve Poizner announced that he brought in the respected Stevens & Schriefer Group to provide top level management to his effort. FlashReport covered that here.
Last Friday, Poizner penned a column which ran in the FlashReport talking about a top down review he undertook of the Department of Insurance, and how he has brought their budget down by 10%.
Just a few days ago, Poizner announced the grand opening of a new headquarters for his campaign in Sacramento, according to the release, will administration, press, political, grassroots, and fundraising operations. His HQ will be at 520 Capitol Mall, Suite 220. Don’t know where that is? Here’s a map.
POIZNER & WHITMAN TALK TO THE DISTRICT ATTORNEYS
The rivals already in the thick of it — starting to move around the state, speaking to various groups. This last week, both Insurance Commissioner Poizner and Meg Whitman spoke to the Winter Conference of the California District Attorneys Association. Team Poizner pointed out, though, that the Commissioner spoke to the full conference, in front of the media, and that apparently Whitman spoke "behind closed doors" to a smaller group. (I can’t wait until this REALLY heats up!)
WHITHER PROFESSOR TOM CAMPBELL?
And what of the Gubernatorial campaign efforts of retired Congressman Tom Campbell? Well, I can’t give you any updates on how that effort is going. But he is traveling quite a bit to Orange County, an important territory for anyone running for the GOP nomination. Why is he in “The OC” so much? Read that here.
WHO IS TOM HALL TO MEG WHITMAN?
Hall, an enterprising liberal activist in the Bay Area beat Whitman’s political team to the finish line, and purchased up some URL’s that Whitman wants: megwhitmanforgovernor.com, whitmanforgovernor.com, whitman2010.com, meg2010.com and megwhitman2010.com. According to this story, Whitman is spending a good amount of money on lawyers to wrest control of these websites.
MSM COVERAGE OF POIZNER V. WHITMAN
In the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen three major stories/columns taking the early peek at this June 2010 showdown in the main stream media – Debra Saunders and John Wildermuth in the San Francisco Chronicle, and Michael Finnigan in the Los Angeles Times.
THE WILD CARD – PETER FOY?
With the number of Bay Area candidates in this primary growing, and given that all three of them are, in varying degrees, abortion rights supporters, I have heard a lot of whispering that perhaps a strong pro-family candidate from Southern California might get into the race, and have a real shot (despite invariably being significantly outspent) at the nomination.
Is that kind of situation realistic? I asked our own FR statewide correspondent, Dan Schnur, who is the Director of the Jesse Unruh Center on Politics at the University of Southern California. He told me, "The most interesting thing about this primary is that none of the three candidates would be described as a traditional social conservative. All of them are certainly going to work hard to reach out to the party base, but there’s a logical opening in the race for even an underfunded candidate who has the credentials to talk to these voters".
Lately, I keep hearing the name of Ventura County Supervisor Peter Foy, who two years ago ousted a left-of-center “Republican” from her seat. Foy is an articulate businessman, whose “street cred” on the right is sterling (he’s a former Board Member of the Christian Coalition). He would have to give up his Supervisorial seat to run in 2010, but he is also pretty driven to see some reform in California State government. FR readers may known Foy best for his role as Chairman of Americans for Prosperity here in California.
We’ll see how this develops, and as always, keep our ears to the ground and our fingers to the keyboard!
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