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Nurses plan protest at Whitman's home

by Dave Boyce

Members of the California Nurses Association say they will be coming to the Atherton home of Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman on Thursday, July 15, at around noon to protest Ms. Whitman's proposal to cut 40,000 state jobs if she is elected.

A campaign flier paid for by the nurses association alleges that Ms. Whitman has "declared war" on California nurses by writing an "imperious" letter "demanding" contact information for the association's membership, then buying the list and "bombarding" the nurses with direct mail, and conducting a "fake telephone poll."

Neither campaign responded to requests for interviews by press time. The rally will gather at 11 a.m. at Canada College, 4200 Farm Hill Blvd. in Woodside. according to the flier.

A visit to the Ms. Whitman's campaign website confirmed that the campaign asked for a membership list and did conduct a phone poll. The polling company was Hill Research Associates, a Texas-based company with clients nationwide, according to its website.

An excerpt from a letter from the Whitman campaign to the nurses association dated June 18 states: "Our campaign would like to mail each member of your union a letter from Meg explaining her positions on critical issues facing California, including the vital issues surrounding health care. ... We hope that you will decide to let us make an unfiltered case to your hardworking membership ... and do not fear giving your rank-and-file members access to both parties' ideas. Only good can come out of such a free and unfettered dialogue."

Go to is.gd/dpvrE (case sensitive) to see the letter.