California Governor's Race Could Become Nation's Most Expensive

(Aug. 3) -- Billionaire Meg Whitman has already spent nearly $100 million in her bid to succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor of California in a race that could set a record for the nation's costliest state-level campaign.

The Republican Whitman, who amassed her wealth guiding eBay into a top Internet company, faces Democrat Jerry Brown, who is seeking to return to the governor's office he held from 1975-1983. Whitman has pumped some $91 million of her own money into the campaign, winning a bitter primary over Steve Poizner. Brown faced no serious primary challenge, spent only $633,000 and still has more than $23 million cash on hand.

The nation's most expensive state race, according to statistics amassed by the Follow the Money website, was the 2002 New York governor's race in which billionaire businessman R. Tom Galisano spent $75 million of his own money in an unsuccessful bid to unseat incumbent Republican George Pataki in a race that totaled nearly $150 million. The record for individual expenditure is $109 million by Michael Bloomberg in his self-financed 2009 campaign for mayor of New York, according to Politico.

After winning the Republican nomination for governor of California, Meg Whitman talks to reporters at a post-primary election celebration in Anaheim, Calif., on June 9.

Reed Saxon, AP

California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, a Republican, has put $91 million of her own money into her campaign.

Whitman spent nearly that much just to win the GOP nomination, and the Whitman-Brown race will likely beat the California record of $138 million in Schwarzenegger's 2006 re-election campaign, according to the Follow the Money statistics.

Yet a separate report by the National Institute on Money in State Politics, which operates the Follow the Money site, suggests that despite her wealth, Whitman faces an uphill fight. Most self-funded gubernatorial candidates fall short on Election Day, in part because the top-down structure of such campaigns works against the crucial grassroots organizing that helps ensure supporters get to the polls.

In fact, the latest polling shows Brown with a slight edge within the margin of error, but with nearly one in four voters saying they remained undecided.

Because of its size and scattered mass markets -- including Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego -- California is an unusually difficult and expensive state in which to mount a political campaign. Television advertising alone can cost millions of dollars a week.

Schwarzenegger, a Republican, is barred from running again because of term limits.