On Election Day, Whitman wrote herself one more check

As her campaign for governor collapsed around her, retired eBay CEO Meg Whitman kept up a cheery, optimistic front.

Perhaps she really was optimistic.

On Election Day, hours before California voters rebuffed the Republican challenger in favor of Democrat Jerry Brown, Whitman wrote her campaign another check, this one for $2.6 million, according to a filing with the California Secretary of State.

That pushed Whitmans self-donations to more than $144 million. No American politician has spent that much personal money on a campaign, win or lose....

... Today there was one last bit of unfinished business for the Whitman campaign: She agreed to pay $5,500 to Nicky Diaz Santillan, the former housekeeper from Mexico whose news conferences in the office of Los Angeles lawyer Gloria Allred ruined Whitmans chances with Latino voters.

Santillan said that after working nine years in the family home in Atherton, she was fired so Whitman could clear the decks for a GOP primary in which illegal immigration would be an issue. Whitman treated her "like garbage," Santillan complained, and said the billionaire CEO shorted her wages.