Republicans Poizner Campbell and Whitman

(Best Syndication News) Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman announced on Tuesday that she will be running for Governor of California (see videso below). Her website is short of specifics but she says she will cut taxes to create jobs and the jobs will lead to more tax revenue. The Silicon Valley tycoon does have some competition from both Democrats and Republicans.

Another high-tech millionaire, Steve Poizner, has announced his candidacy for governor too. Both Whitman and Poizner will be joined on the Republican ticket by former Silicon Valley congressman, Tom Campbell, now a visiting law professor at Chapman University. Campbell is not as wealthy as Whitman and Poizner who are expected to spend tens of millions of dollars on their campaigns.

Meg Whitman

"California faces challenges unlike any other time in its history -- a weak and faltering economy, massive job losses and an exploding state budget deficit," Whitman said in a written statement. "California is better than this, and I refuse to stand by and watch it fail."

She hints at spending more on education. “We need to recruit more and better math and science teachers,” she says on her campaign website. “And we must ensure accountability for student performance and achievement.”

Stephen Poizner

After graduating with a BS from Stanford in Electrical Engineering, Poizner later went on to get his MBA (see videos below). The entrepreneur has founded two businesses in the San Jose area. He started Strategic Mapping with two employees in 1983 and sold it in 1995 for $35 million.

After founding SnapTrack in 1995, Poizner served as CEO before selling the company to Qualcomm in 2000 for $1 billion. With close ties to the Bush Administration, he worked on various Homeland Security projects.

In 2004 Poizner ran against Ira Ruskin for California State Assembly in a heavily Democratic district and lost. He had to turn down a nomination to the Public Utilities Commission because of financial conflicts. Poizner is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Tom Campbell

Tom Campbell is the career politician among those running for the Republican nomination (see videos below). The fiscally conservative Campbell was a member of the House of Representatives from the 12th and 15th districts. He was professor of business administration at the University of California, Berkeley, and dean of the Haas School of Business.

In part, Campbell blames out of control spending for the state’s fiscal crisis. “While the immediate crisis is due to the drop in the state's revenue caused by the national recession, state spending has been faster than inflation and faster than the growth of our state population for the last dozen years,” Campbell said in an Op Ed piece for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Campbell is one of the few Republicans who are calling for a tax increase. “The best of a bad situation would take 50% in (spending) cuts, and 50% in a one-year temporary gas tax increase, to close the deficit this year. It's never a good time to raise taxes, but our California economy has shown we can absorb an increase in gas prices such a tax would cause...”

By Dan Wilson

Whitman On NBC Today

Steve Poizner to CA Republican Party

Tom Campbell on the Economy

Meg Whitman At GOP Convention