Small Town News

Republican candidate for governor campaigns in Plumas County

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Meg Whitman, Republican candidate for governor, laid out her vision for California to a crowd of nearly 100 people Monday, Aug. 24, at the Grizzly Grill restaurant in Blairsden.

The restaurant filled quickly with residents from Plumas, Lassen and Sierra counties to hear Whitman discuss her agenda for the state, which includes creating jobs, reducing government spending and improving education.

They laughed with Whitman as she told personal anecdotes of her upbringing and family life, and they cheered her ideas for rebuilding California.

Whitman is on a tour of several northern Californian towns including Graeagle, Chico, Red Bluff, Redding and Areata.

As the former CEO of eBay from 1998-2008, Whitman earned a reputation as a smart, tough problem-solver. She helped build the company from 30 employees with a little over $4 million in revenue to more than 15,000 employees with nearly $8 billion in revenue. She told the crowd that during that time she saw how government got in the way of small business, an issue in all 50 states, "But, I can tell you California was the most difficult state we dealt with."

Whitman said the state should streamline regulations and reduce taxes, adding that far too many businesses are leaving California. "We cannot afford to lose another job to another state. I refuse to let California fail," she said.

In her opinion the state has become a "bill factory," noting that 2,400 new laws have already been added since January. "The governor has to exercise his veto power," Whitman said, "and, as the CEO of the state, if this person has a need to be liked, this isn't the job for them."

In her discussion about the state's economy, Whitman said the state doesn't have a revenue problem, "it has a spending problem of epic proportions!"

"We need to reduce the number of people who work for the state," she said, pointing out that this year there are 357,000 state workers, 6,000 more than a year ago and 40,000 more than were employed by the state just five years ago.

Whitman believes a good place to start would be by not replacing the nearly 12,000 state workers who retire each year, pointing out that in just three short years the state would be back to the staffing levels of five years ago.

She also touched on the public pension plan and her concern that it is going to bankrupt the state and needs to be renegotiated. She illustrated her concern by noting that currently state employees can retire at age 55 and receive 90 percent of their salary and full health benefits, indicating that that level of funding obviously cannot be sustained.

Leah West, chairwoman of the Plumas County Republican Central Committee, said the fact Whitman took the time to visit the small town was significant and meaningful to its base.

"We feel like we have a rock star here," West said. "We love the fact that she comes from a proven business background, she's not an insider, she's not a bureaucrat, she is a business woman with a vision for California that we all need to hear."

Whitman received a bachelor's degree in economics from Princeton University and a master's in business education from Harvard Business School. She and her husband, Griff Harsh, a neurosurgeon at Stanford University Medical Center, have two college-age sons.



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© 2009 The Chester Progressive Chester, California. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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