During the Winter Olympiad out here in California, it became obvious that a big part of Meg Whitman's strategy for getting elected Governor of California was going to be flooding the zone with ads, drowning out her opponents with her burgeoning bankbook.
Yesterday, Californians got another insight into Whitman's recipe for victory in 2010: avoid unscripted situations with the press, even at the risk of looking completely ridiculous:
Reporters from Bay Area media outlets -- TV, print and radio -- turned up for Whitman's advertised campaign stop in Oakland, where the former eBay CEO had announced a campaign stop and press event.
But once at the Union Pacific Railroad site, the assembled reporters were not allowed to view her tour -- and herded into a holding room instead.
Then came the news that Whitman also wouldn't take questions; reporters had been called in to "see" her make statements on "how she could be helpful as governor" on jobs and the economy, Whitman spokeswoman Sarah Pompei said.
Veteran reporters, who included KTVU's Randy Shandobil and KPIX's Hank Plante, were among the crowd that wasn't amused. Question: is Whitman a candidate for governor, or a museum piece to be "watched" by reporters?
In case there was any doubt that the press did not take well to being reduced to the role of stenographers for the Meg 2010 campaign, check out this absolutely withering treatment of the event by the aforementioned Hank Plante of KPIX. The commentary by the anchors at the close of the video is particularly devastating:
(Notice that while the YouTube clip is merely a re-airing of the KPIX evening news segment on the Whitman event, it is being shopped around on Youtube cheerfully by the campaign of GOP rival Steve Poizner. They clearly know an opportunity when they see it.)
KPIX, not content with merely kicking dirt on Whitman for her campaign's poor behavior during the press availability, portrayed it as part of a pattern, courtesy of a quip from Democratic consultant Dan Newman:
NEWMAN: She refuses to release her tax returns...refuses to release documentation about her flights on the corporate jet for personal purposes. She refuses to tell us what happened on the board of Goldman Sachs at that critical time.
The rationale given for Whitman's refusal to take questions was an unyielding schedule. But the Chronicle's Carla Marinucci was not so sure about the validity of that excuse:
Reason, we were told: Whitman was running late. But Whitman lingered for some time with railroad officials in the same room -- just feet away from the press, who refused to leave. Finally, they were herded out, at which point Whitman's campaign drew the blinds and put up a movie screen to block them from seeing the candidate.
Whitman did sit down to talk for 30 minutes with the Chronicle's Republican op-ed columnist, Debra J. Saunders -- but the rest were shut out.
California is on the DK/R2K polling calendar, with results coming soon. Given her multi-million dollar advertising blitz during the Olympics, it would be shocking to see Whitman leading Democrat Jerry Brown (who seems to be intent to become the first Governor elected without anyone actually knowing he is running for the job).
The question is: can Whitman maintain enough of a reservoir of goodwill with voters if she continues to refuse to speak to them beyond anything other than rehearsed press availabilities and 30-second/60-second advertisements?