Jerry Brown, Meg Whitman Pick Up 25 Grand from Tom Gores

Union-Tribune owner Tom Gores played it straight down the middle in the high-stakes battle for California governor. On October 20, the Beverly Hills billionaire gave $25,000 to Democrat Jerry Brown. The same day he gave the same amount to Brown’s GOP rival Meg Whitman. In a similar vein, San Diego–based Jack in the Box, which had earlier contributed to Jerry Brown, whose wife Anne Gust used to be on the board, on October 20 gave $2500 to Whitman…Padres owner Jeff Moorad also split his party allegiances. On March 26, he gave $1000 to the successful congressional primary campaign of ex–Republican vice president Dan Quayle’s son Ben; then in June he gave a total of $4800 to Democratic senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota, who wasn’t running this year…GOP presidential hopefuls have been spreading cash to the campaigns of congressmembers and senators in hopes of getting their support two years from now, reports the Center for Responsive Politics. But there’s only one beneficiary in San Diego: Congressman Brian Bilbray, who picked up $2500 from Mitt Romney’s Free & Strong America PAC…Democratic state senator Christine Kehoe, who was not on the ballot, was also generous to others. After collecting $1500 from Anheuser-Busch and $1000 each from APS Healthcare Bethesda, Inc., and Raytheon California PAC, she turned $1000 over to Jerry Brown’s campaign and another $1000 to Gavin Newsom’s bid for lieutenant governor. Democrat Juan Vargas, who has long been regarded as a virtual shoo-in for state senate (and who hopes one day to take over Bob Filner’s congressional seat), gave $1000 of his campaign cash to Raymond Castillo’s bid for Imperial County supervisor.