CA-GOV: Whitman Reaches $160M; Now Losing By Double Digits

Phew! The California gubernatorial election between Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown appears to be all over but the screaming. Early voting has been going on for nearly two weeks, and in that time period the Democratic candidate has just continued to increase his lead, with the latest from the Los Angeles Times/USC poll showing a 52%-39% lead among likely voters with a margin of error of ±3.2 percentage points.

The led has been gaining despite the vast, "obscene" amounts of money billionaire Whitman has been pouring into her campaign to buy the governorship of California.

Even the Wall Street Journal is noticing:

Jerry Brown's widening lead in California's gubernatorial race might not be so surprising under other circumstances. The Democratic candidate has a respectable political pedigree and the backing of labor and other liberal groups.

But Mr. Brown, a former California governor and the state's current attorney general, is pulling away from an opponent who has outspent him by more than $130 million, much of it her own money.

Last week, Republican Meg Whitman chipped in another $20 million to her gubernatorial campaign, bringing her total investment to $142 million. This week, though, she slipped further behind Mr. Brown, who held a 44%-to-36% advantage among likely voters in an Oct. 20 survey by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.

The failure of Ms. Whitman's funding advantage to produce even a slight lead has stumped many political experts.

In Whitman's latest ad, she seems to acknowledge California voters don't like Meg very much. The Journal points out that she has outspent her opponent by over $130 million, a total of $163 million, with $142 million donated by herself, to herself.