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Female Tech All-Stars Terminate Opponents in California Primaries

by Warren Riddle on June 10, 2010 at 12:25 PM

Meg Whitman
Film icons and legendary crooners once dominated the political landscape in California, but the Golden(less) State currently bears a crippling $20 billion deficit and an agonizing 13-percent unemployment rate. Last fall, an onslaught of tech moguls supplanted the celebrity grandstanders in Cali's political limelight, and all audaciously promised to capitalize on their successful corporate e-careers by both curtailing frivolous government spending and creating jobs.

Those messages obviously resonated with frustrated and concerned voters, because two candidates in particular claimed overwhelming primary victories. Meg Whitman, the former chief of eBay and current Governor hopeful, dominated her closest Republican opponent Steve Poizner by an astounding 40-percent margin. Poizner's own successful tech history apparently just wasn't as impressive as Whitman's billionaire background (and campaign wallet).

Former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina owned the other commanding landslide. The AP crowned Fiorina victorious Tuesday night as she enjoyed a 35-percent lead over the nearest competitor in a heated Republican U.S. Senate race. (Ms. Fiorina may owe someone a note of gratitude, though, because she apparently ditched her ridiculously lame and amateurish, "Carlyfornia Dreamin'!" slogan.)

The techies still must sway a historically liberal electorate in the statewide elections, though, despite their conservative views on contentious issues like gay marriage, abortion and legalized marijuana. And, as the nation's third largest state suffers through a financial collapse, the candidates spewed unfathomable sums of money for their respective campaigns, with Whitman dropping $71 million of her own money. A fundraiser for Jerry Brown, the Democratic candidate for Governor, dismissed his team's $21 million expenditures with the acerbic remark: "Meg Whitman lights her cigarettes with that." Overcoming those snide, but perhaps appropriate, comments may prove insurmountable, even for the tech heavyweights. [From: The Wall Street Journal]

Tags: california, CarlyFiorina, ebay, hewlett-packard, MegWhitman, politics, primaries, StevePoizner, top

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