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Republican Meg Whitman’s HP likes Democrats
An interesting factoid for the 2012 elections: HP, the Silicon Valley powerhouse run by Republican Meg Whitman, is busy bankrolling Democrats.
Financial disclosure documents on file with the state’s election officer show that of some $48,000 that HP gave directly to political candidates during the last quarter of 2011, about $46,000 went to 18 Democrats and one Republican.
The largest single donation, for $13,000, went to state Attorney General Kamala Harris, the only statewide official to receive a contribution from HP during the fourth-quarter filing period. Harris is not up for reelection this year.
Only one Republican contender, Sen. Ted Gaines of Roseville, received a contribution — $2,000.
The contributions were detailed in HP’s report on its major donations and independent expenditures.
The other recipients all were Democrats, and most received $1,500 or $2,000, with two reporting higher donations – South San Francisco Assemblyman Jerry Hill at $3,943 for a fundraising event and $3,900 for Assemblyman Michael Allen of Santa Rosa.
Whitman, a billionaire and former top executive at ebay, ran for governor in November 2010 and was defeated by Democrat Jerry Brown, who won with a margin of nearly 9 percent of the vote, or 1.3 million votes.
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Yes, I realize this article is more than 3 years old. But it’s interesting – Whitman ran as a Republican, yet her company gave overwhelmingly to Democrats.
Similar situation to Donald Trump in the current GOP presidential primary campaign. Fox News / Megyn Kelly / Brett Baier / Chris Wallace / et al took him to task, heavily criticizing him for donating money to Democratic politicians. Trump honestly indicated that was the way business was done.