Meg Whitman has set a new campaign spending record in her quest to be California's next governor — she will likely be spending at least the next several days fending off questions about how she treated a low-wage domestic worker in her own home. Whitman's former housekeeper, Nicandra Diaz-Santillan, is launching a lawsuit against the billionaire former CEO for EBay, saying that Whitman tossed her out like "garbage" when she asked for help in finding legal status in the United States.
Diaz's lawyer, celebrity attorney Gloria Allred, said in a press conference today that Whitman learned from the Social Security administration that Diaz's Social Security number did not match her name, but threw some of the letters in the trash. When Diaz asked for help in becoming legal after nine years of work, Whitman said, according to Diaz: "From now on you don't know me and I don't know you. You never have seen me and I have never seen you. Do you understand me?"
Whitman's camp released a statement saying Allred was manipulating Diaz, whom Whitman considered to be a family friend. Whitman said Diaz provided documentation to prove she was legal when she applied for the job, and that Whitman and her family fired the maid when she informed them she did not have legal status and had used her sister's documents. Whitman also pointed out that Allred donated to her political opponent Democratic Jerry Brown's campaigns in the past.
Tearfully addressing the press, Diaz said she explained her situation to Whitman in June 2009 and expected her employer to help because of Diaz's loyal years of service:
I explained that I was married and our economic situation in Mexico is very bad. We have no jobs, no food, no place to live and for that reason we made a decision to come here. I told her what she knew--that I don't have papers to work here and I need her help. I want her to help me get an immigration attorney. Ms. Whitman just laughed and turn her face to one side. At that moment Dr. Harsh entered. Dr. Harsh was very angry and said, "I told you, I told you she was going to bring us problems!"
Allred says Whitman also implied she might fire Diaz when she became pregnant, and did not pay her for some hours of her work every week. Allred also said her client did not receive reimbursement for gas when she ran errands for Whitman. "It felt like she was throwing me away like a piece of garbage," Diaz said.
In crafting her general-election appeals for a California electorate that includes a large contingent of Latino voters, Whitman has been trying to walk a fine line with her stance on immigration: She supports aggressive raids on employers who hire, and frequently mistreat, undocumented workers, while opposing a path to citizenship for people in the United States illegally. Her response to her former housekeeper's allegations will thus pose a test for her with two key groups: California Latinos and conservative anti-illegal immigration voters.
Immigration activists have been saying for a while that Republicans are at risk of losing the fastest-growing sector of the electorate by rejecting comprehensive immigration reform as "amnesty" and embracing hard-line measures on illegal immigration such as Arizona's immigration law and stricter border security.
A new LA Times poll seemed to bear the prediction out in Whitman's case, though she has actively courted the Latino vote, especially after beating her conservative challenger in the primary. The poll shows that Latinos in California--who make up about 21 percent of registered voters--back Democrat Jerry Brown over Whitman by a 19-point margin. Only about 26 percent of Latino voters said they would vote for Whitman. Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer has a 38-point lead among Latinos over Republican Carly Fiorina, who's pushed an anti-illegal immigration message more forcefully than Whitman has.
A Field poll in July had Whitman and Brown neck-in-neck among Latinos, and Whitman then launched Spanish-language ads and other aggressive efforts to reach out to Latino voters. She stressed that she was against Arizona's immigration law and Prop. 187, a '90s ballot California initiative--approved by voters but later struck down in court--to deny social services to illegal immigrants.
Suit from Meg Whitman?s maid highlights growing Latino disenchantment with GOP | The Upshot Yahoo! News - Yahoo! News