Whitman easily defeats Poizner

Meg Whitman, who spent a record-smashing $71 million of her own money to sell herself as a political outsider from the corporate world who could turn California around, decisively defeated Steve Poizner on Tuesday to become the first woman in state history to win the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

"This gal is on a mission. ... I'm all in," the billionaire former eBay CEO declared at her lavish victory party at the Universal City Hilton in Los Angeles, where 500 supporters ate and drank amid signs declaring, "Fiscal responsibility is on the way."

Poizner, the state insurance commissioner, spent $24 million of his own money to try to win the nomination, only to be clobbered in a campaign that descended into a slugfest between the two Republicans. Statewide, turnout was believed to be about a third of all registered voters, which would rival all-time lows.

Whitman's victory sets up one of the nation's most highly anticipated general election contests - the Nov. 2 matchup with Democratic nominee Jerry Brown, the former two-term governor who has been state attorney general since 2007.

"It will be the most expensive election in California history," said political scientist Barbara O'Connor, who predicted that the challenges for both candidates will be considerable.

"The voters are grumpy," O'Connor said. "They want statewide candidates to address issues - and no one is. And those are security, safety, family, jobs and all the things that radiate off of that."

With Whitman and Senate nominee Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO, Republicans head into the general election with two wealthy self-funded female candidates from the business world. They give the party hope it can end the Democrats' domination of the nation's most populous state - and in the process, complicate President Obama's re-election strategy in 2012.

Whitman, in her victory speech, went on the attack against Brown, promising him "the toughest fight he's faced in 40 years of politics," and depicting herself - in a year of anti-incumbent fervor - as a fresh face and political outsider.

"While Jerry Brown's business is politics, my business is creating good new jobs," she said. "It's time for a different style of leadership."

She added, "Failure seems to follow Jerry everywhere he goes. ... It's a record of promising much and delivering little, of saying one thing and then doing another."

Whitman, who broke all spending records in the primary and says her campaign may ultimately spend upward of $150 million, promised voters "a new beginning - not glitz, not glamour, not glibness, but guts."

Her defeated Republican opponent appeared to offer Whitman only conditional support.

"Meg Whitman began this campaign as a skeptic of our conservative ideals," Poizner said in his concession speech in Irvine. "We challenged her. And by the end, she embraced our positions.

"If Meg Whitman runs on conservative principles, she deserves our full support."

Brown sets his tone

Brown, who handily won in a Democratic field that was cleared of serious challengers months ago, immediately contrasted his low-key, thrifty campaign to the sumptuous spending of the two GOP candidates.

"We have just seen the two Republican candidates for governor stage a billionaires' demolition derby," he told supporters in Los Angeles. "They both say they want to run the state like a business, but they set a national record for excessive spending."

He cautioned that "whether in a campaign or in state government, it is time for an agenda of humility - living within our means and a decent measure of self-discipline."

"The world has changed since our entire financial system hit the wall and almost collapsed," Brown said. "The path forward must now be built on honesty, frugality and innovation."

Whitman's ability to finance her own race will mean "a tough campaign" for Brown, "but I think Democrats are well-positioned," said Democratic former state Controller Steve Westly, a leading backer of the nominee.

He said Brown, whose career in public office started in 1969 on the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees, can raise questions about Whitman's previous disinterest in the political process, including her admitted failure to vote in many elections.

Issue vulnerability

Brown is also likely to portray Whitman, a former member of the Goldman Sachs investment banking firm's board of directors, as a contributor to the corporate excess that led to the Great Recession.

Whitman's tack to the right during the primary campaign on issues including immigration and the environment could cost her in the general election with Latinos and independents, respectively, Westly said.

Whitman adviser Rob Stutzman countered that the Republican nominee's views are well within the mainstream, and that, in any event, the issues that will trump all others with voters will be "jobs and taxes."

Political newcomer

Whitman declared her intention to enter politics just 18 months ago, and was backed by such GOP stalwarts as ex-presidential candidates John McCain and Mitt Romney and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

She cast herself as a outsider who could take on what she called Sacramento's dysfunctional political leadership.

Whitman promised to create 2 million new jobs, cut the state's public workforce by as many as 40,000 employees, and trim what she said amounted to $15 billion a year in waste, fraud and abuse.

Poizner tried to undermine her with conservatives by pointing to past Whitman donations to Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, her earlier glowing statements of support for Obama green czar Van Jones, and her onetime backing of amnesty for illegal immigrants.

But his attacks came too late to overcome Whitman's months of campaigning and formidable organizational lead, which included hiring an army of the state's top political consultants.

E-mail the writers at cmarinucci@sfchronicle.com and wbuchanan@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle