Meg Whitman is spending almost a million dollars a day in her bid to be California’s next governor, and with the recent USC/Los Angeles Poll showing Whitman 5 points behind Brown among likely voters only 32 days before the election, her spending spree is unlikely to slow down.

Meg Whitman's got plenty of green - will she get our vote? Photo by flickr user whiteafrican.

When I think of 119 million dollars, which last happened when I was 8 years old and owned a make-believe business with my cousin, I’m at a loss for words. I can’t even begin to process what it means to be able to spend that much money in a lifetime, let alone in 15 months. But clearly Whitman knows and doesn’t seem to have any qualms about it. 

When questioned about her spending on one occasion, she said it was necessary because [Jerry] Brown’s name recognition was already so high. She had to spend that kind of money to be on equal footing.

Whitman has dropped almost $90 million of her money on TV and radio ads no one can escape, $19 million for political communications specialists, $3.5 million for a media advisor, $3.7 million for direct mail pieces, $4 million for an image consultant, and almost $3 million dollars for her top three senior advisers.

Brown, on the other hand, had spent less than a million dollars total by August. Such a disparity between both their campaign finances and sheer numbers of staff and resources might mean good things for Whitman in November, but that is far from certain.

While many voters find Whitman’s strong business and political outsider background appealing, others are still skeptical of her, and for good reason.

How does someone show no interest in politics by not voting for thirty years and then decide to run for governor in a state whose GDP is the 7th highest in the world?

Is she bored? Looking for a challenge? Because that’s most certainly what she’ll get.

In such trying economic times, a 20-billion-dollar budget deficit and a gridlocked legislature, you need a governor who understands the inner workings of the political process. You need someone who has a rapport with current legislators and can use that to achieve compromise. California already had its chance at a business-savvy governor who promised growth and prosperity and delivered neither. Not again.

Currently, Whitman finds herself entrenched in a controversy about her employment of an illegal immigrant. Whether she knew her housekeeper was illegal seven years ago or just last June isn’t the point. She is now off message and, worst of all, having to defend herself -- the last position in which a candidate wants to be.

Whitman is not yet out of the race. Her bottomless pocket book has and will keep her within a few points of Brown. But Californians know something she doesn’t: Money can’t buy our vote.

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