Money Matters, But it Doesn’t Guarantee Victory

Will Whitman be PG&E’ed?

If yesterday’s California Primary demonstrated one thing it’s this – money matters.

But, it doesn’t mean guarantee victory.

There were two cases yesterday that proved this.

In the case of billionaire Meg Whitman, the former e-Bay head honcho, her $70 million of television advertising, mailers, high-paid consultants, private jets and image molding almost guaranteed her victory for the Republican nomination for Governor over millionaire Steve Poizner who spend a mere $24 million of his own money.

By some calculations, Whitman spend about $75 for every vote amongst the believers. Whitman deep pockets simply overwhelmed Poizner in the narrowly focused group.

On the other end of the spectrum PG&E spend over $45 million in it’s pimping of Proposition 16. If passed, the proposition would have required a two-third voter approval for utility publicly owned utility versus investor owned.

PG&E opponents, a motley group of consumer groups, environmental organizations and city councils waged war against the utility behemoth with just $101,400.

After $45 million of misleading advertising, PG&E was unable to buy its constitutional amendment. Pundits will attribute the loss to several factors, one of which should be that voters saw through PG&E’s excesses to buy the election.

Which brings us back to Whitman.

With the nomination in her pocket, will Whitman continue her barrage of spending and advertising for the next five months? We will see in the next few weeks.

In the interim, one question worth pondering is will independent voters suffer from Whitman fatigue by the time the November election rolls around to the point they either vote for Brown or just fail to show up a the polls.

If that happens, Whitman will have suffered the same fate as Proposition 16 – she will have been PG&E’ed by her own excesses.