The Whitman family's shady actions leave questions about her governing abilities.

The other day I caught a glimpse of an article on the Huffington Post by Christine Pelosi (daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi), in which she spoke of her initial desire to like Meg Whitman. Pelosi wasn’t going to vote for Whitman, but as a woman, she wanted to respect the doors that Whitman had opened for other women in politics and business. 

I, too, knew I wouldn’t vote for Whitman. Her lack of a voting record, for starters, is inexcusable for someone running for governor of California. But after the radical anti-choice, anti-women, anti-everything campaigns of Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Christine O’Donnell and now Carly Fiorina, I thought it would be a nice change having a levelheaded, strong and intelligent woman enter politics - no matter her party affiliation.

While I still admire her success as a business leader, Whitman's actions surrounding Nicky Diaz Santillan, the undocumented housekeeper she hired, and what I’ve learned about her family have led me to not only disagree with her politics, but to doubt her moral compass as well. 

That Whitman hired an illegal immigrant to work in her house is not the most important part of this story. 

Whitman’s story is one that is taking place across California and the United States, affecting employers, illegal immigrant, and U.S. citizens alike. The larger concern is Whitman’s disregard for human decency. If her side of the story is true, that she did not know Santillan was an illegal immigrant until she confessed last summer, why would her first reaction be to fire someone she considered “family?"

Everyone makes mistakes, but I feel real sympathy for illegal immigrants who work in fear of an employer finding out their status and the likely retribution to follow. So why then wouldn’t someone in Whitman’s position of wealth and influence offer to help Santillan on the pathway to citizenship or at least offer her severance pay or adequate funds to return to her native country? 

Another source of disappointment stems from what I’ve discovered about Whitman’s two sons, Griff and Will. I thought it odd that until the housekeeper story broke, I didn’t even know Whitman had a husband, let alone two adult children. This is unusual in politics. Typically, a candidate’s family is touted at events and on T.V. ads to increase likeability and reassure voters of his/her strong family values. In Whitman’s case, her family is mentioned in only a few lines on her campaign website.

After a few minutes of Googling, I located several articles that cited her sons indiscretions, and rather than being about the usual college experience with alcohol or pot, these spoke of violence and racial epithets. 

In June 2010, Salon.com wrote that Griff faced felony battery charges in 2006 after breaking a woman’s ankle. A security guard who witnessed the event corroborated the girl’s story that Griff “pushed her with two open hands on her chest and shoulder area” to the ground. 

Whitman posted his $25,000 bail.

Will, on the other hand, is rumored to have “complained about the presence of African-Americans at a predominantly white Princeton social club, using an out-of-bounds racial slur” (NBC Bay Area). 

And a Princeton graduate student spoke about an incident where Will, president of the rugby team, insisted that the graduate student and his university-sanctioned rugby team get off the rugby fields. Before campus police arrived, Will interfered with the game by throwing third base over the fence and dared a professor to tackle him when he asked for the base back. 

Kids do stupid things, and usually the parents are not at fault . But I take issue with 20-somethings having so little respect for those around them. In this case, Griff and Will’s actions raise questions about who raised them and the lessons they absorbed growing up.

I wanted to like Meg Whitman, if not for her policies, then at least as a person. But her recent actions and the disturbing behavior of her sons leave me searching for Whitman's moral compass.

Reach writer Meredith Vivian here.