Giuliani stumps for Whitman in California governor race

LOS ANGELES — Locked in a fight for centrist voters, Meg Whitman turned to fellow Republican moderate Rudy Giuliani on Sunday to help make her case that she will heal California's economy and transform Sacramento by slashing government spending and lowering taxes.

Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and 2008 Republican presidential candidate, told cheering Whitman supporters in a Los Angeles hotel that electing Democrat Jerry Brown would be a step backward in a state with a double-digit unemployment and a financial crisis in state government. He depicted Brown as a vestige of failed Democratic policies who hadn't earned a return trip.

"You want to go back to those eight years?" Giuliani asked, referring to Brown's years as governor from 1975 to 1983. He praised Whitman's business credentials — she's a former chief executive at eBay — and called her "the right person at the right time for the kinds of challenges California faces."

The value of endorsements is often questioned, but Whitman is hoping that Giuliani's celebrity and his record in New York — he is known for his leadership after the World Trade Center attacks and helping steer the city out of the recession of the early 1990s — will resonate with California voters.

Giuliani took a beating in the 2008 presidential race, but he was an early leader in the California primary. He remains is a popular fixture on the Republican campaign circuit, and he is making stops this week on behalf of candidates in several Western states.

Recent polls show Whitman and Brown in a tight race. The outcome of statewide races are often determined by independents, and Whitman is at a disadvantage because Republicans account for only about one in three voters in California.

Whitman will not attend a high-profile GOP fundraiser with Sarah Palin in Orange County next week — Whitman's campaign says she has other commitments that day.

A recent Field Poll found Palin is not a popular figure in California — about two of three independents said they would be less likely to support a candidate endorsed by the former Alaska governor.

California is like much of America: Voters are in a funk and most feel the state in on the wrong track.

California's next governor will inherit a multibillion-dollar budget hole, but neither candidate has offered a detailed solutions to those issues frightening voters: 12.4 percent unemployment, sinking home values and an erosion of state services witnessed from classrooms to state parks.

Whitman, who routinely criticizes Brown for his ties to Sacramento labor unions, warned that putting him in charge would

Giuliani endorsed Whitman last year. But he wasn't Whitman's favorite in the presidential race: She was an economic adviser to candidate Mitt Romney and, later, a co-chair for GOP nominee John McCain's campaign.