Ad Watch

Mar 12, 2010 — The Sacramento Bee

Amy Chance and Jack Chang

Mar. 11, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman is running a series of ads attacking opponent Steve Poizner as she seeks her party's primary nomination. Following is the text of one ad and an analysis by Bee Political Editor Amy Chance and Jack Chang of The Bee Capitol Bureau:

TEXT: Why we can't trust Steve Poizner -- Reason 21. Steve Poizner gave $10,000 to help Al Gore try to win the 2000 presidential election. And you thought Poizner was a Republican.

ANALYSIS: Poizner did contribute $21,000 to Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore and the Democratic National Committee in 2000. He has said he wrote the checks on behalf of his wife.

Whitman's ad doesn't mention, though, that she has a history of contributing to some Democrats, including U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer. She gave $4,000 to Boxer in November 2003 and an additional $4,000 to Boxer and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee that same month, according to the Federal Election Commission.

Whitman also endorsed Boxer in 2003 as a member of the group Technology Leaders for Boxer. In a joint letter publicized by the Boxer campaign, Whitman wrote, "Barbara Boxer is a courageous leader and friend of California's technology industry." She has said she liked Boxer's opposition to Internet taxes.

Voting records don't shed much more light on which candidate is more Republican.

Poizner, from a Democratic family, registered as a decline-to-state voter when he moved to California in 1978, public records show. He has been registered as a Republican since 1981.

Whitman was registered as a Republican voter in San Francisco in 1982. She later switched her registration to "decline to state," then re-registered as a Republican in 2007.

Poizner, unlike Whitman, has been a regular voter for more than three decades.

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Call Bee Political Editor Amy Chance, (916) 326-5535.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0178-42821476