Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman sought to redirect attention from her spotty voting record Saturday as she promoted a platform of fiscal discipline to the party faithful.Last week, The Sacramento Bee reported that according to voter registration records, the 53-year-old billionaire and former eBay CEO was not a registered voter until 2002. The newspaper reported that no voter registration records for Whitman could be found in any of of the places that they reviewed ("six states and a dozen counties, including towns and counties in Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, New Jersey, Rhode Island and California...").
Speaking to the state Republican Party convention near Palm Springs, Whitman outlined a program of severe austerity for state government if she is elected next year.
She promised to slash an additional $15 billion in spending and reduce the state government work force by 40,000, reiterating points she made earlier in the week when she formally announced her candidacy. She provided no details about how she would achieve those goals.
Whitman told GOP delegates that California simply can no longer afford the level of government service it has been providing.
"If elected, I will identify and implement at least $15 billion in permanent spending cuts from the state budget. I'll eliminate redundant and underperforming government agencies and commissions," she said.
Whitman's speech did not touch on questions that have surrounded the campaign for days, after The Sacramento Bee published the results of an investigation into her voting record.
Shortly after Whitman gave the state party $250,000 of her own money for voter-registration efforts, the Bee reported there was no evidence that she had ever registered to vote before 2002 and she had not registered as a Republican until 2007.
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