• Dear Jerry Brown: Look, you had the perfect opening to totally win the California gubernatorial race. Meg Whitman was caught hiring an illegal immigrant and firing her under questionable pretenses – a political leveraging point that doesn’t come up every day. Too bad you had to call a police department last month, only to have one of your aides refer to Meg Whitman as a “whore.” Did you not think that was gonna get out and damage your campaign? The two really stupid decisions cancel one another out. That’s right, friends. California easily has the year’s dirtiest gubernatorial race. Sorry, New York. source

• bad Meg Whitman’s political image has become centered on a single issue: What she did to her former undocumented housekeeper.
• worseCalifornia’s gubernatorial debate last night became about the issue of immigration, which pretty much sucks for her. source

• I was shocked and hurt that Ms. Whitman would treat me this way after nine years. I realized at that moment that she didn’t appreciate my work. I felt like she was throwing me away like a piece of garbage.
• Meg Whitman’s former housekeeper Nicky Diaz • Showing up a couple days before October to prevent herself from becoming an “October surprise.” See, Diaz, an undocumented immigrant, was the California gubernatorial candidate’s housekeeper for nine years, only to be unceremoniously fired in an attempt by Whitman to hide the fact for political reasons. “From now on you don’t know me and I don’t know you,” Diaz claims Whitman said to her back in 2009. Whitman, who is generally very free-spending, reportedly didn’t pay some of Diaz’s wages. And who’s Diaz’s lawyer? That’s right. Gloria Allred. If this is true, Meg’s so screwed. source

• thenWeeks ago, Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer seemed perilously close to losing their respective races for Governor and the Senate.
• now Brown is now ahead of Meg Whitman for the first time in weeks, and Boxer has extended her lead over Carly Fiorina to eight points.

• FOR A supposedly blue state, California was looking uncharacteristically hostile to Democrats as recently as last week. However, the latest USC/LA Times poll puts both Democrats ahead  of their GOP opponents (Boxer more comfortably so). Possible reasons for the turnaround include Whitman’s over-saturation of the  ad market (she’s spent $119 million so far on the race), and this brutal attack ad from Barbara Boxer. Whatever the reason, it’s a good day for Democrats in the Golden State. source

• $302k every day
• $8,490 every hour
• $141 every minute source

• $109 million the amount Bloomberg spent on his high-spending 2009 NYC mayoral campaign
• $119 million the amount Whitman, the ex-eBay CEO, is spending on her California gubernatorial campaign source

• yes Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas survived a Democratic primary runoff against Lt. Gov.  Bill Halter to stay in the race in the fall.
• no South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Nikki “scandal target” Haley didn’t get enough votes to prevent a runoff – but she almost did.
• yes Meg Whitman easily won the Republican primary in the California governor’s race. If you can call easily spending lots of your own money. source

• » Still on deck: Carly Fiorina’s the likely favorite to win the Republican primary for the Senate in California, but it’s still to early to call that race. And Nevada’s Republican Senate primary – a.k.a. the fight to win Harry Reid’s seat – hasn’t been decided yet.

• $500,000 amount she spends daily

The result all that money creates

• 51% the tally the former eBay chairman has going into the GOP primary
• 25% the tally her challenger, Steve Poizner, has in the poll
• 24%haven’t made up their minds or plan to go for a minor candidate source

• $46M the amount the former eBay chairwoman has spent on her California gubernatorial campaign
• 40% the size of the lead she has over her GOP primary challenger Steve “Steamrolled” Poizner
• seven the number of months she has before the election; she leads Jerry Brown, too source

• 46% support the former eBay chief executive in the governor race
• 43% support the current California Attorney General
• 11% support the pollster not asking so many questions source