World’s 7th Largest Economy for Sale – Cheap!

It is said that during the death rattle of the Roman Empire, the Senate gave up even the pretext of holding elections, choosing instead to sell the Senate offices outright to the highest bidders, election buying being merely a costly, if quaint, formality.

There is of course, this guy:

It’s bad enough that he actually tried to sell a Senate seat to the highest bidder

but that hair, man…

Whitman may give $30 million to state GOP

July 15, 2010 | By Carla Marinucci and Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Political Writers

California Republicans are buzzing about the possibility that billionaire gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman – who has spent nearly $100 million of her own money on her campaign – could be preparing another unprecedented personal investment in her political future: a $30 million-plus infusion into the state party.

The Chronicle has obtained a draft of a detailed 44-page state GOP “2010 Victory Plan” that outlines the party’s $85.5 million financial blueprint for a campaign effort that includes $30 million directed to the gubernatorial race.

The former eBay CEO is “putting a significant amount of money in … it could be $30 to $40 million,” said a GOP insider familiar with the plan. The source said Whitman is also expected to tap her fundraising sources and contacts for the party’s benefit.

Whitman’s potential $30 million in contributions was confirmed by prominent state Republicans, who spoke on condition that they would not be named for publication.

But Whitman spokesman Tucker Bounds strongly denied the notion.

“No secret document or anonymous source you have is credible in this because Meg is not writing the $30 million check,” he said. “It’s simple. Meg is planning to help solicit outside contributions to the party and working tirelessly to defeat the status quo in Sacramento. That’s the plan and it isn’t a secret.”

Moreover, Whitman campaign officials insisted the candidate is planning no sizeable contributions to the state GOP.

Reshaping politics

With four months to go before the November election and the latest polls showing the gubernatorial race in a dead heat between Whitman and Democratic state Attorney General Jerry Brown, the buzz about Whitman’s seemingly bottomless checkbook underscores how the GOP candidate – who has already broken all spending records – continues to reshape California politics dramatically.

The victory plan specifically states that the mission of the party in 2010 is “to put a Republican governor in Sacramento by strategically communicating, promoting and supporting the (state party) message to its members, elected officials and candidates.”

Gubernatorial candidates frequently donate and fundraise heavily for state party causes – as has Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. But with a net worth exceeding $1 billion, Whitman is by far the wealthiest candidate ever to seek state office.

Struggle to expand

Party insiders say that a move by Whitman could have wide-reaching effects in a party that has struggled to expand its shrinking base in the nation’s most populous state.

Currently, 45 percent of California voters are registered Democrats, giving the party a 2 million vote advantage over the GOP, which has 31 percent of the registered electorate. Twenty percent of voters are classified “decline to state.”

This sort of cash infusion for the GOP – it has $1.8 million in the bank, according to the secretary of state’s most recent reports, filed in June – would help with the plan’s stated aim of registering 500,000 new GOP voters.

“I can confirm her campaign is very engaged with the state GOP and her commitment to carry us across the finish line is very sincere and very substantial,” said state GOP vice chair Jon Fleischman, publisher of the popular Flashreport.org website.

Though Fleischman would not confirm any specifics of the plan, other Republicans did.

Still, Fleischman said state Republicans welcomed Whitman’s support in beating Brown, whose campaign has been bolstered by at least four independent expenditure efforts funded by major union groups.
“Meg Whitman’s organization has been a partner in the creation and development of a statewide political plan, and we’re excited to have her at the top of the ticket,” said Fleischman.

Strings attached?

And while appreciative of receiving an influx of dollars, other conservative activists were wary.

“The question is, would there be strings attached to the money?” said Mike Spence, a GOP strategist and former president of the California Republican Assembly, a conservative activist organization.

The draft of the plan calls for the hiring of an army of new GOP political operatives, including technology coordinators, media trainers, voter-outreach coordinators and “a team of ethnically, linguistically and geographically based group of surrogates” to speak on the candidate’s behalf in 13 media markets.

Already, sources said, some of Whitman’s top insiders are involved in hiring the team that will oversee the effort – including some of the same veteran operatives now at work in Whitman’s campaign.

The revelation about Whitman’s role in GOP finances comes in a week when she has been in the national spotlight on money issues.
A New York Times story earlier this week outlined how Whitman invested $1 million in political consultant Mike Murphy’s independent film company just days after he told rival political GOP candidate Steve Poizner he would no longer be involved in politics. Murphy later went to work for Whitman as her senior campaign adviser.

The SFGate Article

Typical Middle-Class 2 Yacht Family

From Matier & Ross, San Francisco Chronicle

Sen. Barbara Boxer has fired a shot across the bow of Carly Fiorina – in the hopes that her Republican rival’s ownership of a pair of yachts might sink her with voters.

Boxer has taken to comparing her years of “public service” to Fiorina’s choice “to become a CEO, lay off 30,000 workers, ship jobs overseas (and) have two yachts.”
Fiorina’s 70-foot Alchemy V, a 2001 Dyna Craft valued for tax purposes at just over $1 million, is moored in Sausalito.

Her 56-foot Sea Ray yacht, the 3-year-old Alchemy VI, is docked on the Potomac in Washington, D.C. – not far from the Georgetown condo that Fiorina and her husband own.

Fiorina spokeswoman Julie Soderlund said it makes sense for the Fiorinas to be a two-yacht family, given that the boat-loving couple have divided their time between California and D.C., near where their grandchildren live.

read it on SFGate.com