Jerry Brown backers announce plans to go after Meg Whitman

Reporting from Sacramento — 

Although Democratic front-runner Jerry Brown has not yet declared himself a candidate for governor, his backers have unveiled plans to start spending millions of dollars attacking wealthy GOP hopeful Meg Whitman in an attempt to curb her momentum.

With Whitman gaining on Brown in the polls, even though the two would not go head-to-head until November, Democratic operatives have created independent campaign committees aiming to raise as much as $40 million for the effort from rich liberals, unions and other special interests.

Donors can give unlimited sums under state law, as long as Brown does not direct how it is spent. Television and radio commercials, campaign officials say, will start airing next week. Websites attacking Whitman are also going up.

Billionaire and former EBay chief Whitman has already spent more than $19 million on her campaign, saturating the airwaves with radio and television commercials. A relative unknown not long ago, she is now within five points of Brown in the latest poll by the Public Policy Institute of California, while her rival in the GOP primary race, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, has made little impression on voters.

Former Gov. Pete Wilson, chairman of Whitman’s campaign, addressed the Democratic effort in a fundraising plea to supporters this week.

“The ramifications for all Republicans are now clear,” he wrote. “Jerry Brown and his allies are beginning the general election.”

Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist behind one of the new campaign groups, said the effort was necessary because Whitman “is spending unprecedented amounts to buy the governorship.”

Lehane and other consultants involved in the new committees engineered a similar effort in 2002, when Democrats targeted former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, a Republican who was running for governor. Supporters of former Gov. Gray Davis, anxious about facing the wealthy moderate in a general election, launched a campaign against Riordan that helped weaken him enough to lose his party’s primary.

It remains to be seen whether the Democrats can raise as much money as the operatives are projecting. But Roger Salazar, a consultant for one of the committees, California Working Families 2010, said Democrats have no choice.

“Meg Whitman is already saying she will spend $150 million herself,” he said. “She has been on the air for some time. The Republicans are not going to stop. If we don’t do something to counter it, it will have an impact on the electorate.”

Whitman campaign officials say they are prepared for the onslaught.

“It is obvious the Democrats want to run a highly negative campaign against Meg because they don’t want to face her in the fall,” said spokesman Tucker Bounds. “We expected this. Our strategy remains the same.

“We will talk about Meg’s message of creating jobs, cutting spending and fixing education,” he said. “And we will fight back against Jerry Brown and his cabal.”

evan.halper@latimes.com

Times special correspondent Anthony York contributed to this report.