Self Funders Stumble With A Month To Go

Some self-funding candidates locked in tight races ran into trouble late last week when they stumbled into gaffes, scandals and past missteps that could be devastating for their chances of victory.

The prime example of these misfortunes is Meg Whitman (R), the former head of eBay, who has broken every self-funding record in the books as she attempts to become California's next governor. Hotshot attorney Gloria Allred revealed in a riveting news conference last week that Whitman employed an illegal immigrant as a housekeeper for 9 years. When faced with her ex-housekeeper's accusations of secrecy and abuse, Whitman admitted that she knew her housekeeper's status last year, that she and her husband were told about mismatching Social Security numbers in '03, and subsequently accused her former housekeeper of being manipulated by Allred and opponent AG Jerry Brown (D). Whitman then offered to take a lie detector test to prove her innocence, which didn't help her in terms of putting an end to the story. Her campaign later walked back Whitman's offer.

Whitman has been locked in a tight race with Brown despite overwhelming him on the airwaves and his lackluster campaign. Brown and Whitman met for their second debate on Saturday, and Whitman's housekeeper drama was front and center. She attempted to turn the table on Brown, accusing him of setting this whole story in motion. Brown denied that, heatedly, according to the Los Angeles Times' account.

"Don't run for governor if you can't stand up on your own two feet and say, 'Hey, I made a mistake, I'm sorry, let's go on from here,'" he said to Whitman. "You have blamed her, blamed me, blamed the left, blamed the unions, but you don't take accountability."

Whitman is in a difficult position going forward. Her business experience and personal wealth have been at the forefront of her campaign, like most self-funding candidates. But this week, she ran into the same problems that plague other first-time candidates- inexperience and personal (or professional) history.

Whitman has been very disciplined on the stump thus far, relying heavily on talking-points and avoiding long confrontations with reporters. But her offer of a lie-detector test, which may sound reasonable in a corporate setting, only sounds ridiculous to political ears, who have heard politicians use that line for decades. And the matter of Whitman's wealth, which created this juggernaut campaign, was at the root of this scandal. If she didn't have a housekeeper, she wouldn't have had this problem. Candidates' trappings of wealth often cause problems for their campaigns, whether it is their yacht, their tax breaks or the multiple houses they own.

Having employed illegal immigrants isn't the silver bullet it was in the '90s for politicians. Whitman could survive this, and come out a better, more prepared candidate. But the combination of her missteps after the revelation and her campaign's bungled spin job can only boost Brown's bid.

Another self-funder who suffered a gaffe last week was Connecticut Senate candidate Linda McMahon (R), former CEO of the WWE. McMahon, who has also run a very disciplined, error-free campaign, has slowly crept up on frontrunner AG Dick Blumenthal (D). In a press conference last week to accept an endorsement from a business group, McMahon was asked how she felt about the minimum wage. McMahon said she thought the national wage should be reviewed, and reiterated her dislike of federal mandates.

Reporters jumped on her response, following up with questions specific to Connecticut, including whether McMahon knew what the state's minimum wage was. She didn't, and then attempted to make clear that she wasn't specifically saying that the minimum wage should be lowered. Her campaign then had a very bad day, clarifying that McMahon didn't want the minimum wage lowered and then criticized reporters for their headlines on the matter.

Blumenthal and unions took advantage of the situation. Unions blasted McMahon for wanting to lower the minimum wage, and the Blumenthal camp wasted no time throwing up a TV ad based on the matter.

"Her business is under investigation for failing for pay Social Security, Medicare or unemployment," the ad announcer reads. "She took home $46M. And now she's talking about lowering the minimum wage."

McMahon's gaffe pales in comparison to Whitman's drama. But it is a clear case of the trouble self-funders can run into when they attempt for high office in their first campaign. A candidate who has run for the state legislature, for example, would have known right off the bat what the state's minimum wage was. And politicians who have read briefing books for years would have that information in front of them constantly. McMahon's bid will survive this gaffe, but it will probably stunt her momentum slightly, and gave Democrats one more opposition hit to use in October.

Whitman and McMahon can be thankful, though, they're not the third self-funder who ran into trouble last week. Car dealer Tom Ganley (R), running for Congress in OH-13, was sued by a campaign volunteer for sexual assault. Ganley is running against Rep. Betty Sutton (D), and has spent millions of his own money on his bid thus far. The volunteer, who says she is a Republican, accused Ganley of wanting "to dominate her, parade her on a leash and have sex with her in front of his 'play friend.'"

Even if the accusations are totally baseless, it's pretty hard to come back from that sentence, one month out from the election.

In the past, self-funders haven't generally been very successful in winning statewide office on their first try. The National Institute on Money in State Politics notes that, in the past 9 years, only 11% of total self-funders won their races. Political history is ripe with those campaigns - from former Northwest Airlines CEO Al Checchi (D) ($40M in the California's '98 governor race) to developer Jeff Greene (D) ($23M in this cycle's Florida Senate race) and beyond.

This year could break the trend, with Whitman, McMahon and many others running in tight races, including businessmen Rick Scott (running for Florida Governor) and Wisconsin's Ron Johnson (Senate). But as Election Day nears, and their opponents get desperate, look for more oppo hits to drop, specifically focused on their business careers and personal wealth. If that's the only record a campaign runs on, it will be self-funders' downfall or reason for victory.