Meg Whitman speaks Wednesday afternoon in Hollywood with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. (Taylor Freitas)

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman met with supporters and discussed her plan for California at a town hall-style meeting with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday afternoon in Hollywood.

Whitman spoke about her three main objectives for the state: creating jobs, fixing the education system and cutting government spending. Christie explained how he achieved similar goals in New Jersey since winning the governorship last fall. 

Christie, also a member of the GOP, serves as a sort of beacon of hope for Whitman, who is effectively going against the odds by running as a Republican in a blue state.

Whitman called Christie’s work in New Jersey a “roadmap for exactly what we need to do in the state of California.”

Before Whitman spoke, volunteers handed out pom poms, signs and inflatable noisemakers to the crowd.

Sacramento radio talk show host Eric Hogue introduced the two politicians, riling the audience up before Whitman and Christie came out to speak.

“There’s a little victory in the air, isn’t there?” he asked.

As Whitman addressed the crowd, she emphasized her plans to decrease government spending and said she has already outlined $15 billion in savings for the state.

“I’m going to be the governor that says no to wasteful spending,” she said.

Whitman, the former CEO of eBay, also detailed her plan to create jobs and make California a better place for small-business owners, calling herself a “proven job creator.”

Both Whitman and Christie discussed reforming the education systems in their respective states, and both harshly criticized teachers’ unions.

“Union leadership…has become fat and entitled and sanctimonious and self-servicing,” Christie said.

Many people at the meeting echoed the criticism of the teachers’ union.

Gloria Rubardt, of Westwood, said the union and not the teachers themselves is the problem.

“The union does nothing for them. All it does is feed off them,” she said.

As governor, Whitman said she would push for more money to go to classrooms and less to go to administrative costs. She also said she would support creating more charter schools.

Her opponent, Attorney General Jerry Brown, a Democrat, was a target of criticism from both Whitman and Christie at the meeting. Brown was not popular with Whitman’s supporters, either.

“We don’t need Jerry Brown. He’s a has-been,” said Kate Wright, of Westwood. “He’s the reason the state’s in the state that it’s in.”

Reach staff reporter Taylor Freitas here.

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