Reporting from San Diego —
Republican gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman launched a searing attack against Democratic rival Jerry Brown in hopes of rallying the party faithful as California Republicans opened their convention Friday night.
Brown is a career politician whose election would guarantee higher taxes and more government spending, she charged.
"Finally, after 40 years in politics, three presidential runs, four years as attorney general, four years as secretary of state, eight years as mayor of Oakland and two terms as governor, we once and for all are going to say goodbye to Jerry Brown's failed ideas and broken promises," she told several hundred attendees.
"Jerry Brown is a career politician who actually once said that technology isn't so great, it costs jobs. Can you imagine?" Whitman said. "It's remarks like that that underscore Jerry Brown's radical approach and failed philosophies — philosophies that California simply can't afford right now."
The campaign played a short video mocking Brown's previous political runs, including a quote from former President Bill Clinton saying during the 1992 presidential primary that Brown was untrustworthy. And Whitman's aides distributed buttons that depicted Brown's face on an old-fashioned television set and read, "Nobody Likes Reruns."
Brown's campaign accused Whitman of continuing to misrepresent his record to deflect attention from her own flip-flops on issues such as immigration.
"Whitman has to lie about Jerry Brown, because the truth about her is she can't be trusted," said Brown spokesman Sterling Clifford. "Not even Meg Whitman knows what Meg Whitman would do as governor."
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-republicans-20100821,0,4685217.story