( Matt Ortega )

It is the final stretch towards the June 8 primary and Meg Whitman spoke to the El Centro Chamber of Commerce. It is crunch time for the campaign but Whitman, the former eBay chief, drew a “half-empty” crowd

Meg Whitman’s lead over Steve Poizner in the GOP gubernatorial primary collapsed from 22 points to just two percent in less than three weeks. To date, Whitman spent nearly $60 million of her own personal wealth on the race. With the primary less than a month away, Whitman could experience one of the worst political collapses in the modern era

Republican gubernatorial hopeful Steve Poizner is under fire from school officials and students regarding comments he made in a forthcoming book, Mount Pleasant. Poizner, who spent a semester as a guest teacher at the school in 2002-2003, offered a derogatory nickname for the school, ”Mount Pregnant.” Students and teachers are outraged by the candidate’s attack on the school. NBC-affiliate in the Bay Area, NBC11, spoke with students and administrators at the school

Meg Whitman’s gubernatorial campaign called together the media for to cover her face-to-face meeting with Union Pacific Railroad, a big-time corporate donor to her gubernatorial campaign. The assembled press attempted to ask questions at the end of the media but rebuked by the Whitman campaign, even forcing out the press in the most politically damaging way possible. The video from CBS’ local coverage is worth the watch

Jerry Brown officially announced his candidacy for a bid to return to the governor’s mansion via web video. Brown, the state’s current attorney general, managed to clear the field with a strong fundraising operation. The gubernatorial hopeful said in a campaign e-mail that he plans to run a ”lean campaign” with minimal staff.

Watch the announcement video

The gubernatorial campaign of Meg Whitman paid $20,000 for advertising on the conservative blog, Red County, that another advertiser only paid $300 for the same ad space. Chip Hanlon, proprietor of the blog, recently fired a blogger found to receive payments from Whitman rival, Steve Poizner

A campaign consultant, working on behalf of Meg Whitman, threatened to spend “$40 million-plus” to tear down Steve Poizner and offered to clear the Republican field for U.S. Senate in 2012 if the state’s insurance commissioner dropped out of the governor’s race.

The explosive allegations, if corroborated, threaten to upend Whitman’s campaign for governor

Earlier this week, Santa Clarita City Councilman Bob Kellar pronounced himself a “proud racist” at a January 16th anti-immigration rally.

Kellar, a supporter of Meg Whitman’s campaign for governor, may cause problems for the political novice

Tom Campbell’s campaign planned large events for Thursday and Friday. Jerry McNerney spoke to reporters about a December trip to Afghanistan. Robert Beadles filed a lawsuit regarding his arrest over allegedly stolen property. Elizabeth Emken was profiled in a local paper, and more

Henry Gomez is a top staffer to Republican gubernatorial candidate, Meg Whitman. He staffed her during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota that nominated John McCain as the party’s standard-bearer.

It turns out that Gomez donated the maximum — $2,300 — to Barack Obama’s campaign