After engaging in a nasty and expensive fight with her GOP rival Steve Poizner in the primaries, Meg Whitman is ramping up her Latino voter outreach with new ads. I must admit that the ads are slick. They show Whitman interacting with a range of constituencies within the Latino community, and this particular ad has a mix of English and Spanish with subtitles. The irony for me about Whitman using Spanish in the ads is that she has come out on record as being opposed to bilingual education, but then creates an obviously bilingual ad (um, what happened to the English immersion?):
And Whitman conveniently leaves out any mention of immigration, pathways to citizenship or the boogeyman himself, former California Governor Pete Wilson, who serves as a chairman in her campaign and who was a big supporter of Prop 187, which Whitman is opposed to in addition to the new Arizona immigration law. Immigration became a focal point for Whitman in the primaries in battling Steve Poizner but is noticeably absent from these new ads. This particular ad is completely in Spanish:
These ads show that Whitman knows that she cannot become Governor of California without the Latino vote. Last week the Los Angeles Times reported the following from a GOP strategist:
“Unless she gets over one-third of the Latino vote, I don’t care how much she spends, she’s not going to win,” said Allan Hoffenblum, a former Republican consultant who publishes the California Target Book. “She was pushed further to the right on that issue than she wanted to go, but the one key thing she remained steadfast on, even though she whispered it during the primary, was that she opposed the Arizona law.”
While Whitman is opposed to the Arizona law and Prop 187, she does not come out very positively for comprehensive immigration reform or even incremental steps to legalize people such as the DREAM Act. In my view, these ads are obvious panders to the Latino community. But they are well done, and Jerry Brown cannot underestimate Whitman’s ability to generate polished messages like these.
What are you thoughts? Are you convinced by these ads and should someone who wants to “enforce English immersion” even make bilingual ads?
10 responses so far ↓
1 Anna // Jun 21, 2010 at 11:36 am
Re: “While Whitman is opposed to the Arizona law and Prop 187″
I wouldn’t assume that about her. She will say whatever she has to say to get elected. I hope 30% of Hispanics are not dumb enough to fall for her BS.
2 irma // Jun 21, 2010 at 3:38 pm
Gov Brown would be wise to ask his ex girlfriend
Linda Ronstadt, to compaign for him- a few free concerts perhaps? She considers herself Mexican -
her rendition of Rogaciano, el Huapanguero is just gorgeous.
3 Pablo // Jun 23, 2010 at 2:15 am
Whitman should video blog.
4 HispanicPundit // Jun 23, 2010 at 11:31 pm
I’m probably going to vote for her. Not because she is the best, but because her alternatives are alot worse.
5 Anna // Jun 24, 2010 at 3:19 pm
If you vote for her, you’re an idiot.
6 Anna // Jun 24, 2010 at 4:39 pm
http://www.jerrybrown.org/node/755
If Meg Whitman had ever bothered to vote, she might know that Jerry Brown cut taxes by billions of dollars, built up a surplus and created 1.9 million new jobs for Californians. If Whitman wants to discuss Jerry Brown’s record, she should accept his invitation to 10 town halls and debate Jerry’s accomplishments in person.
Whitman’s ad is 60 seconds of falsehoods – beginning with the claim the Brown was a big-spending governor. In fact, Brown decreased General Fund expenditures as a percentage of State Domestic Product more than any governor since economists began tracing SDP in 1963. Brown – well known for fiscal frugality – twice vetoed pay increases for state workers.
During Brown’s governorship, California provided nearly $16 billion in tax relief above and beyond the savings provided by the passage of proposition 13.
During Brown’s tenure as mayor of Oakland – consistent with Proposition 13 – more than two-thirds of the people of Oakland voted to raise additional revenue to put more police on the street, buy more text books and put more teachers in city classrooms. Brown presented budget choices to the city, and the citizens chose the services they wanted and were willing to fund.
The attack from Whitman also falsely claims that Brown’s actions led to a take-over of Oakland schools by the state. Multiple journalists have already proven her claims to be false. According to a KGO TV report, “OUSD admitted that Brown “played no part in the financial problems that led to the state takeover.”
Much as she did in the primary, Whitman believes that telling the same lies over and over will make them true. But the truth is, Meg Whitman didn’t vote for 28 years, left California for nearly a decade, and never lifted a finger to support the issues she trumpets now that she has decided to run for governor.
7 doctorH // Jun 26, 2010 at 1:41 pm
You got to be really ignorant to believe Meg Whitman even plans to implement any one of her campaign promises once in office. Her candidacy is all about egotism. The closest she will come to embracing the Latino community will be when she begins to hee haw about paying the team of Latinas for cleaning her mansion every week in cash.
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