Together, former Ebay CEO Meg Whitman and Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner spent nearly 100 million dollars vying for their party’s nomination. Meg Whitman spent far more money – and came out the victor.
Kimberly Nalder is a Professor of Government at Sacramento State. She says generally the major dollars are spent during the campaign for the general election, so the escalation didn’t seem necessary:
Nalder: “It makes it start to seem like maybe the California governorship has become like a sort of vanity position. If you have enough money or enough fame from your movie career, maybe it’s the sort of thing that you buy for yourself.”
Meg Whitman donated roughly 70 million dollars of her own money to her campaign and has said she’s willing to increase that to 150 to compete in the general election.