Crates of garlic and green peppers flanked gubernatorial
candidate Meg Whitman. Patriotic music played as she took the stage
Thursday afternoon before a Republican-friendly crowd in one of
Christopher Ranch’s warehouses. Supporters said her message was as
American as the crops she stood before: putting Californians back
to work and getting the state back on track.
Crates of garlic and green peppers flanked gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman. Patriotic music played as she took the stage Thursday afternoon before a Republican-friendly crowd in one of Christopher Ranch’s warehouses. Supporters said her message was as American as the crops she stood before: putting Californians back to work and getting the state back on track.
On the eve of the Garlic Festival, a standing-room-only audience of more than 100 supporters, many sporting “Meg 2010” buttons, rose to their feet, applauding and whistling as the Republican candidate and former chief executive officer of eBay took the microphone. Whitman opened her speech with a series of grim figures followed by a hopeful pronouncement.
California is home to the third highest unemployment rate in the country, an infrastructure “built for a population half its size,” a public school system “that used to be among the very best and is now rated among the very bottom” and a budget deficit of $20 billion, she said.
“We face a very difficult set of circumstances but we can turn California around,” Whitman said. “California is worth fighting for and that’s what I’m going to do.”
Half a dozen TV cameras lined the back wall of the warehouse and photographers circled the perimeter of the audience, jostling for a better shot. Though a podium and stool with a glass of water had been set up for Whitman, she never touched either and spoke without notes about her plan to turn the state around. As she spoke, her surroundings were as much a backdrop for her campaign as for the ranch that hosted her for the day. The smell of peppers and garlic lingered in the air and a large poster that read “Meg’s Plan for Jobs” was bordered by crates of fresh and processed vegetables bearing the Christopher Ranch logo. A California flag on one side and a Christopher Ranch delivery truck and John Deere tractor on the other flanked the makeshift stage.
Prior to her speech, Whitman took a short tour of the ranch. Dressed in crisp khakis and a denim blazer, she spoke about how she’d like to foster businesses like Christopher Ranch, the country’s No. 1 family-owned garlic producer. Gilroy is just one destination of several on a whistle stop tour that will take her up the East Bay, to Oakland and Berkeley.
“I would say she goes along with almost everything we believe in,” said garlic mogul Don Christopher following Whitman’s speech. Whitman’s campaign team contacted the ranch and Christopher said they were happy to host her visit to Gilroy. “We certainly believe in more jobs and less paperwork, less problems to make our business go. Make it easier for business to get started.”
As each of her points were greeted with enthusiastic applause, Whitman emphasized how, instead of addressing every problem that ails California, she’d like to focus on three main areas: creating jobs, reigning in government waste and repairing the broken public school system.
“California is the most difficult state in the country to do business,” she said, adding that if elected, she would put a moratorium on all new regulations. “Regulation is strangling businesses of all sizes in California. Let’s stop the madness.”
At a time when California is “bleeding jobs” to neighboring states, “you will not find a more staunch defender of business in California,” Whitman said as her audience cheered.
By providing job-creating tax cuts, Whitman plans to create 2 million private sector jobs by 2015, she said.
“If we don’t make it easier to start and grow a business in California, there is no way out of this mess,” she said.
She equated her opponent, Democratic candidate and California Attorney General Jerry Brown, with higher taxes, fewer jobs and more government spending. Half a dozen Brown supporters gathered at the entrance of Christopher Ranch during Whitman’s visit and waved promotional posters as attendees left.
Though Whitman spent the bulk of her speech addressing job creation, several audience members questioned her about her position on other issues – such as immigration, water restrictions and failing schools – and she spent about 10 minutes fielding their questions.
When asked about her stance on the controversial Arizona immigration law, Whitman said she was opposed but that employers must be held accountable for only hiring documented workers.
As for the federal law restricting water to the Central Valley, Whitman said the fastest way to stimulate farm jobs in that region is by turning on the pumps that supply water to the valley.
“We will be sued,” she said, “but sometimes you have to stand up and do what is right for people and their jobs and it is very clear to me that the pumps need to be turned on.”
After spending several days in Florida, studying their public education system, Whitman said California needs to look to other states whose systems are working better than their own. By funneling more money straight to the classroom, hiring qualified teachers and making it easier to create charter schools, California’s schools can be near the top again, she said.
“I refuse to believe that California cannot be better than it is,” Whitman said. “We can make the Golden State golden again. I know we can.”
Supporters flocked to the edge of the stage to shake Whitman’s hand and said they planned to vote for Whitman because of her business savvy.
“We have an opportunity this November to elect a business person rather than a career politician,” said Bill Christopher, co-owner of Christopher Ranch, “someone that knows that a budget means that you have so much money and you spend so much money. No more.”
Morgan Hill resident Dennis McHenry, 67, agreed.
“I think she’s a pretty tough woman,” McHenry said. “I think she’s sincere and I think she’s aggressive and she has common sense. She’s a good businesswoman and that’s what we need. We are in a horrible mess.”
