Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman (R) will spend more than $100 million of her personal fortune on her run for governor of California.
Two days after winning the Republican gubernatorial nomination, Whitman injected another $20 million of her own money into her campaign, the Sacramento Beereported Tuesday.
She has already spent $88 million on her effort to succeed outgoing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R).
Whitman is approaching what New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent on his race last year. During the 2009 mayor’s race, Bloomberg spent $109.9 million getting reelected.
Meanwhile, the New York Times reported Monday than in 2007, "an eBay employee claimed that Ms. Whitman became angry and forcefully pushed her in an executive conference room at eBay’s headquarters." As a result, eBay had to pay close to $200,000 to avert a lawsuit.
Whitman faces state Attorney General Jerry Brown (D) in November.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (D) had to maneuver through a bruising primary, and he now faces the prospect of having his predecessor on the trail for the foreseeable future.
Republicans are making it clear they want to tie Quinn to disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D). "As governors, Quinn and Blagojevich have failed us," the announcer says in a recent TV spot for the Republican Governors Association.
But Democrats maintain voters won't associate Quinn, who was lieutenant governor to Blagojevich, with his flamboyant predecessor.
"When the Blagojevich scandal broke, the very first thing out of Pat Quinn's mouth was, 'I have not spoken to this guy in over a year,'" Nathan Daschle, executive director of the Democratic Governors Association (DGA), said on a conference call Wednesday. "There is no real relationship between Blagojevich and Pat Quinn."
Daschle said the DGA's polling confirms that assumption. "The trail is not going to hurt Pat Quinn," he said.
Still, Daschle hinted that Democrats would move aggressively to paint state Sen. Bill Brady, Quinn's Republican opponent, as too extreme.
"This is going to be a competitive race," Daschle said.
A South Carolina state senator this week used a racial slur to describe President Barack Obama and a Republican rival running in the state's gubernatorial primary.
Along with the president, the lawmaker targeted state Rep. Nikki Haley, who is of Indian descent.
"We've already got a raghead in the White House, we don't need another raghead in the governor's mansion," State Sen. Jake Knotts (R) said on an Internet political talk show called Pub Politics.
Knotts later explained his comments.
"If it had been recorded, the public would be able to hear firsthand that my 'raghead' comments about Obama and Haley were intended in jest," Knotts said in his statement. "Bear in mind that this is a freewheeling, anything-goes Internet radio show that is broadcast from a pub. It's like local political version of Saturday Night Live, which is actually where the joke came from."
Knotts has endorsed Haley's primary challenger, Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer.
Haley's campaign condemned the comments as did state Attorney General Henry McMaster (R), who is also running in the race.
Haley, who has been endorsed by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), has also faced accusations that she has extramarital affairs with two men, but she denies both claims.
Four GOP candidates are vying for the nomination to replace Gov. Mark Sanford (R), who is term-limited.
Sanford, a former 2012 presidential hopeful, dealt with a personal scandal of his own last year when it was revealed he took secret trips to Argentina to visit his mistress.
After losing his bid to become the first black governor of Alabama, Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.) said he's done with politics.
"I have no interest in running for political office again," the four-term congressman told the Birmingham News. "The voters spoke in a very decisive way across every sector and
in every section of the state. A candidate that fails across-the-board
like that obviously needs to find something else productive to do with
his life."
Davis lost his bid for the Democratic nomination Tuesday. He took 38 percent of
the vote to Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks' 62 percent.
In running for governor he had to give up running for reelection to his House seat.
"When I ran for Congress, I never had the desire to be a career politician," he told the paper.
Davis said he planned to resume his career as a courtroom lawyer.
The News also has a breakdown of Davis' loss, noting that he not only lost majority-white districts but also predominantly black counties.
Glen Browder, a former congressman and professor at Jacksonville State University, told the News Davis gambled
that, by voting no on healthcare reform and
then refusing to court longtime black political organizations for their
support, he would appeal to white voters.
"And it is so clear now that Davis' gamble failed miserably," Browder said.
Davis was the only black Democrat in Congress to vote no on healthcare reform.
Doña Ana County District Attorney Susana Martinez won the New Mexico Republican gubernatorial primary Tuesday. She will face Democrat Diane Denish in November.
Martinez, who had been endorsed by Sarah Palin, finished with 51 percent of the vote. Her closest rival, former state GOP chairman Allen Weh, pulled in 28 percent of the vote.
Pete Domenici Jr., the son of the well-known Republican senator, finished with only 7 percent of the vote.
Tim Murtaugh, spokesman for the Republican Governors Association, called Martinez win "historic."
"Susana Martinez is poised to bring a new era of responsibility to Santa Fe," Murtagh said in a statement.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) is term limited.
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