EBay?s Whitman Plans Run for California Governor, People Say - Yahoo! News
Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Meg Whitman, the former chief executive officer of EBay Inc., plans to run for governor of California and may announce her candidacy as early as next month, according to people familiar with the matter.
Whitman, a 52-year-old Republican, is assembling a team to manage her campaign and will hire some of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s staff from his bid for the U.S. presidency, one of the people said.
She resigned from EBay’s board and those of Procter & Gamble Co. and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. Whitman told the DreamWorks board she was leaving to run for governor of California, a person familiar with the matter said.
A candidacy would pit the former Silicon Valley executive against California insurance commissioner Steve Poizner, who is also the founder of SnapTrack Inc., a business that was acquired in 2000 by Qualcomm Inc.
Poizner and Whitman would seek to replace Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who can’t run for re-election in 2010 because of term-limit laws. Schwarzenegger is a business-friendly Republican who five years ago used his wealth and celebrity to win the governorship of the most-populous U.S. state.
Whitman’s decision to resign her corporate board seats freed her to focus on a campaign for the highest office in California, a state that has been so severely battered by the recession that it may run out of cash as soon as next month.
Whitman, who has been discussed as a potential candidate in political circles for over a year, would join a growing list of those seen as potential successors to Schwarzenegger, including U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein and state Attorney General and former Governor Jerry Brown, both Democrats.
Second EBay Executive
She would be the second EBay executive to seek the governor’s office. Steve Westly, who was one of EBay’s first employees and oversaw its international expansion, left the company at the end 2000 to run for public office. He was elected state controller in 2002 and lost a bid for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2006, when Schwarzenegger won re- election.
Whitman, 52, stepped down as EBay CEO in March and remained as a paid adviser to John Donahoe, her replacement. She joined the presidential campaign of Republican John McCain that same month as national co-chairwoman.
A Field Research Corp. poll released in November found that Whitman held the highest favorable impression of three leading Republicans considering runs for the governor’s office, including Poizner.
The survey found that U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein held the most favorable impression, leading five other possible Democrats, including Brown, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
Poizner has already formed an exploratory committee for his governor’s run and has drawn support from, among others, former Senate leader Jim Brulte.
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Well, does the highest bidder get to be our new governor?
