SEIU announces $5 million campaign for Jerry Brown

The Service Employees International Union announced on Thursday a new independent expenditure of $5 million in support of California gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown (D).

The campaign, which will target the state's Latino voters, will comprise a series of television, radio, and Web advertising and a field operations effort.

SEIU International Secretary-Treasurer Eliseo Medina noted on Thursday that the campaign — dubbed "Cambiando California," or changing California — comes as Brown's Republican opponent Meg Whitman is under fire for hypocrisy on her immigration stance.

Whitman was accused Wednesday by a former housekeeper of firing the woman after she said she needed help gaining legal status.

"We won’t leave it to Meg Whitman to define our issues with lies and scapegoating,” Medina said. "Through Cambiando California we will empower the Latino voter to stand up and be counted.  All of us want a better education for our children and good jobs to provide for them."

A new radio ad sponsored by Cambiando California will begin airing Thursday, and will be followed by a television ad on Spanish-language stations in Fresno and Los Angeles starting Oct. 2.

"Whitman attacks undocumented workers to win votes, but an undocumented woman worked in her home for nine years," it states, in part.  

The Field poll shows Brown leading Whitman by four points among Latino voters.