Watch Giuliani: Brown is Ca.'s past, Whitman its future

Giuliani: Brown is Ca.'s past, Whitman its future
AP – California Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, left, with former New York City mayor and


LOS ANGELES – Locked in a fight for centrist voters, Meg Whitman turned to fellow Republican moderate Rudy Giuliani on Sunday to help make her case that she will heal California's economy and transform Sacramento by slashing government spending and lowering taxes.
Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and 2008 Republican presidential candidate, told cheering Whitman supporters in a Los Angeles hotel that electing Democrat Jerry Brown would be a step backward in a state with a double-digit unemployment and a financial crisis in state government. He depicted Brown as a vestige of failed Democratic policies who hadn't earned a return trip.
"You want to go back to those eight years?" Giuliani asked the invited audience, referring to Brown's years as governor from 1975 to 1983. He praised Whitman's business credentials — she's a former chief executive at eBay — and called her "the right person at the right time for the kinds of challenges that California faces."
The value of endorsements is often questioned, but Whitman is hoping that Giuliani's celebrity and his record in New York — he is known for his leadership after the World Trade Center attacks and helping steer the city out of the recession of the early 1990s — will resonate with California voters.
"Rudy Giuliani is very popular in California, because he turned around New York City. And the question I get every day on the campaign trail is, 'Can California be fixed?'" Whitman said.
Questioned by a reporter about a recorded voicemail message in which an unidentified Brown aide refers to her as a "whore" because of her attempt to curry favor with a law enforcement union, Whitman said she considers the word a slur but didn't call for Brown to personally apologize.
Later, she said she wanted the campaign to concentrate on issues voters care about. "They want to know what I am going to do about jobs," she said.
Giuliani took a beating in the 2008 presidential race, but he was an early leader in the California primary. He remains is a fixture on the Republican campaign circuit, and he is making stops this week on behalf of candidates in several Western states.
Recent polls show Whitman and Brown in a tight race. The outcome of statewide races are often determined by independents, and Whitman is at a disadvantage because Republicans account for only about one in three voters in California.
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