The day after the Eyewitness News Poll showed her plummeting 20 points, Republican /*Meg Whitman*/ was back campaigning with a renewed purpose.
The poll by Survey USA now shows her opponent, California Insurance Commissioner /*Steve Poizner*/, only two points behind the former EBay executive.
Whitman, a billionaire, has given her campaign nearly $60 million. So far in the primary she's spent $46 million. And she will spend more.
"I promise you I think voters will come back to the notion they want the most fiscal conservative person to lead this state," said Whitman. "That's what we need right now. So I feel good about where we are."
Poizner, a multi-millionaire, waited until the last three weeks to go on the air. That's the same period of time covered by the change in the polls. He gave his campaign $19 million.
"We saved our resources till when people were really paying attention -- now," said Poizner. "And we knew all along that if we waited to the last two months to deliver our bold, clear messages, we would do just fine."
"I think he's spent $15 million of negative ads against me in the last four weeks," said Whitman. "So you might imagine that would have an effect."
Whitman told her audience Tuesday she would cap spending in a state that has a debt bomb in front of it. More than $6 billion before July 1. The former Silicon Valley CEO said because the state is so far behind in computer technology, it is almost impossible to find the fraud.
"This is not fair to each and every one of you," said Whitman. "These are your hard-earned taxpayer dollars that are not being spent to help people who need it most. It's being spent to help the fraudsters."
The race for the Republican nomination for state governor is so volatile there's apparently only one certain outcome. Whoever the Republican nominee is after the primary, they will be facing former governor Democrat /*Jerry Brown*/.
