First Take: Whitman unleashes on Brown. Runoff for Central Coast Senate seat. Schwarzenegger meets Medvedev.

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Meg Whitman has launched her first ad aimed at Jerry Brown. Something tells us this won’t be her last.

Meanwhile, Whitman dismissed the hoopla around her altercation with an EBay employee a couple of years ago.

On the Central Coast, Republican Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee narrowly missed a chance to avoid a runoff with Democrat John Laird in the race for the 15th District state Senate seat. The rematch of Tuesday’s contest will be Aug. 17.

In budget news, Assembly Democrats tweaked their oil tax/borrowing scheme as they move toward compromise with their Senate Democratic colleagues.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in San Francisco.

Two measures qualified for the November ballot Tuesday, including a measure to suspend the state’s greenhouse gas law.

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