California Watch
A Project of the Center for Investigative Reporting
Money and Politics

February 5, 2010 | Chase Davis

The feverish spending by California gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner has been well documented this week, with Monday’s release of the newest round of state campaign finance reports.

The short version: With nearly a year to go before the general election, Whitman has spent $19.5 million – much more than Poizner’s $3.7 million – and well on the way to shattering campaign-spending records. And guess who cashed in biggest? Campaign consultants.

Speaking of consultants, one of Whitman’s advisers wasn’t shy about saying the candidate would spend upwards of $40 million to “tear up” Poizner if he didn’t drop out of the race ASAP. Meanwhile, Democratic candidate Jerry Brown continued to lay low, spending next to nothing by comparison.

This much we already know. But if you want to dig deeper, we’ve just finished updating our searchable database of gubernatorial campaign spending to include this week’s filings. Go ahead and take a look.

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