[BigdaddyQH]

California, the largers state population wise in the country, and the state with the biggest financial problems, will have a very interesting race for governor in November. Meg Whitman, the CEO of Earthlink, has already started to campaign, airing connercials this weekend. She is seeking the Republican nomination. She has never held public office, but has been a very successful business woman.

On the Democratic side, it is a old professional politician, the former Governor Jerry Brown, who is the only candidate for the office. Brown is eligable because he was the Governor before term limits kicked in. After leaving Sacramento, he has been elected State Attorney General, and the Mayor of Oakland. Brown has never been out of politics.

So the choices could not be clearer. On the one hand, you have a successful business woman who has never held political office and has no idea how things are run in Sacramento. On the other hand, you have an old political hack, who has never seen a dollar that he did not want to spend, and has no clue how things are run outside of Sacramento. Whitman's argument is that the politicians have no clue how to run the state, and that she, with her experience and her success in business, can do a better job than politicians. Brown's argument is that only an experienced leader can lead California out of it's financial woes.

So who do you vote for? The fresh face with no experience at all,or the old pol, who has been in office for most of his adult life?

[DwightShrute]

540 Billion in debt . No light on the horizon and no hope of things getting better if they keep doing the same things over and over. How many IOU's can they issue? Get someone who has the will to change things and have the guts to take on the unions who are destroying the state.

Give Whitman a try IMO. Time to run the State like a business. Spend what you can afford. Jerry Brown would only be more of the same.

also, start drilling for oil in the Pacific.

[andywend]

The free spending liberals in California's state legislature need to be shown the door.

They have DESTROYED the state with their insistence on giving money away to all that apply. Due to this, all of the leeches flock to California as they will always go where the free money is.

The very first piece of new legislation should be to stop all entitlement programs. After this is accomplished, you go back to the drawing board and carefully review all the programs that were in place and bring back only the ones that are absolutely necessary.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, should anyone be allowed to receive money for doing nothing. To all of the deadbeats currently on welfare who have no skills, they can always take care of other welfare receipients children to earn their checks while the rest being required to find jobs.

Offer large tax incentives to businesses both big and small who hire people formerly on public assistance.

Minor spending cuts will no longer get the job done as a completely new mindset needs to be put into effect to fix California's financial problems. If not, the state will eventually default on their financial obligations.

[Mr KLC]

Status quo is not working for California. Their debt minimizes every other state's. Give the businesswoman a shot.