Salon.com > Juliet Williams

Husband possibly saw letter on Meg Whitman maid glitch

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 00:01:00 +0000

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman says her husband might have seen a 2003 letter warning that their housekeeper's government records weren't in order.

The letter from the Social Security Administration is at the heart of claims by their former maid that Whitman and her husband knew she was in the U.S. illegally but kept her on the job.

Whitman for two days said she and her husband never received the letter.

But she told KNX radio in Los Angeles on Thursday that she suspects writing on the letter is her husband's. Her campaign released a separate statement from her husband -- Dr. Griffith Harsh -- saying he didn't recall the letter but it is possible he wrote on it.

A copy of the letter was released earlier by the maid's attorney.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) -- The attorney for Meg Whitman's former housekeeper released a copy Thursday of a purported 2003 letter that she says shows the Republican gubernatorial candidate knew all along that the maid might be an illegal immigrant.

Meg Whitman breaks U.S. campaign spending records

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 21:12:00 +0000

Meg Whitman, the Republican candidate for California governor, has surpassed New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for the highest personal contribution in American campaign history.

Whitman's campaign reported another $15 million contribution late Tuesday, bringing her personal donation to $119 million.

The billionaire former eBay chief executive's spending surpasses the previous record of $108 million set by Bloomberg in his bid for a third term last year.

Bloomberg spent about $185 per vote for his re-election, and he did not take donations.

Whitman, however, has spent the summer aggressively fundraising for her general election race against Democratic Attorney General Jerry Brown.

Whitman planned a visit Wednesday to the San Francisco headquarters of Yelp, an online review site.

Calif. GOP gov race tightens as attacks intensify

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 16:42:00 +0000

Meg Whitman's shot at the Republican gubernatorial nomination looked as easy as an eBay bid: Plunk down nearly $81 million and wait for the clock to run out.

Yet in the final days before Tuesday's California primary, the former chief executive of the online auction company is on the defensive, challenged by a well-funded rival who has made an issue of her lack of support for Arizona's tough immigration law, her ties to embattled Wall Street investment giant Goldman Sachs and her inconsistent record of voting in elections.

State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner has even tried -- in a web-only video -- to link her to eBay's expansion in the online pornography market.

Suddenly, the numbers don't look as good for Whitman, the 53-year-old billionaire political neophyte who argues that her business expertise as the CEO who built eBay into a Fortune 500 company can turn around California's woeful finances. Her 50-point lead in the polls has dropped to as low as 10 points amid some wildly fluctuating surveys, including a poll last weekend that showed her ahead by d a 24 points.

Waiting for the Republicans is Democrat Jerry Brown, 72, the state attorney general, one-time presidential candidate and former governor who wants his old job back.