One to Watch: California's Meg Whitman

By Laura Singleton • on May 6, 2009
Meg Whitman

In the State of Crisis known as California, Girl Pundit found a true Jane in Gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman. Sound familiar? It might if you’re a fan of the Wall Street Journal–or if you sold your Aunt Mabel’s hideous porcelain cats online. She’s the former CEO who guided eBay from a 30-person start-up to the “eBehemoth” it is today. A fan Mitt Romney and a late-stage national co-chair of McCain’s presidential campaign, Whitman is taken seriously by the RNC, and with good reason.

Both Whitman’s high-powered history running multi-billion dollar organizations and her experience in interviews show. A graduate of both Princeton and Harvard, she’s sharp, articulate, and has no trouble controlling the conversation to stay on message.  She’s powerful without coming across as snarky, and is as practical as she is smart.

So, what does she believe is the key to a conservative comeback in California? What she calls “the Power Alley”.

In Whitman’s view, Power Alley issues are those core values that appeal to virtually every voter. The big one: economic recovery. Admittedly, libs may argue with her strategy to achieve this recovery (lower taxes across the board, pro-business policies, smaller government), but she believes that the message will resonate with Californians she’s targeting—namely the Conservative core of the GOP, the huge numbers of women who’ve left the party (she’s even started a “MEGa WOMEN” coalition to unite California’s politically minded females), and 18-29 year olds who overwhelmingly sway left.

These groups, she believes, will respond to a vision of the future where government gets out of the way and lets small businesses create wealth, where jobs are plentiful and future generations aren’t drowning in this generation’s debt.

Whitman hopes that her Power Alley is strong enough to offset her conservative Achilles heel: Her decidedly more liberal stances on socal issues. Whitman’s betting that the wide appeal of her fiscal policies will outweigh her position on these issues in her state. While her positions may not play as well in other parts of the nation, in California’s more socially-diverse and financially-stricken environment, this may be a good bet.

Whitman’s confident that Californians will respond to her Power Alley message: “We’ve got to fix the state’s economy.  We’ve got to start creating jobs again.” And that’s worth more than all of Aunt Mabel’s cats put together.

For more information on Meg Whitman or the MEGa WOMEN coalition, see http://www.megwhitman.com/

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