GOP rival blasts Whitman donation

SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 18 (UPI) -- A conservative opponent of Republican California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman says her past support of environmental causes damages her credibility.

Whitman's GOP opponent pounced Tuesday on revelations that her charitable foundation donated $1.15 million to a Colorado group that favors seizing private property for open space, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

"What we see now is that Meg Whitman is a dishonest billionaire and writes huge checks to opponents of California farmers while telling campaign lies," Jarrod Agen, a spokesman for California Insurance Commissioner and rival GOP candidate Steve Poizner, told the newspaper. "Will the real Meg Whitman please stand up?"

Tucker Bounds, Whitman's assistant campaign manager, responded that criticism of the donation to the Valley Floor Preservation Partner -- made before she became a gubernatorial candidate last year -- comes from "a hysterical spokesman of a campaign that's on the ropes.

"Meg has consistently been on the sides of jobs and people first," Bounds told the Mercury News.