Update: Thurs:

“For two days, Whitman forcefully denied receiving any such letter and said she fired the $23-an-hour housekeeper last year immediately after learning she was illegal. But Whitman’s husband changed course Thursday after a letter surfaced with what appeared to be his handwriting, forcing him to say he may have been aware of the correspondence back in 2003.

The husband’s shift only served to intensify the uproar in a contest that until now been focused on serious issues such as job creation, government spending and education in a state with a $19 billion deficit and 12.4 percent unemployment.

Now, the focus is on whether the billionaire GOP nominee for governor will take a polygraph test to respond to allegations brought by a celebrity-seeking attorney and her mysterious housekeeper client.

Revelations about the illegal housekeeper have also thrown Whitman’s carefully managed campaign completely off track and opened the door for Democrats to accuse her of hypocrisy.”

HuffPo

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Whitman Couldn’t Find Non Immigrant Housekeeper

That’s what I have to read into the kerfuffle going on today about whether or not Meg Whitman, current aspirant to be California’s Governor,  knew her maid of nine years, “Nicky” Santillan was legal or illegal.  She certainly knew she was an immigrant.  So as someone who doubts Ms. Whitman’s sincerity about the well-being of the California economy, and the people who depend on it for their livelihood, the first thing I’d like to know is did Whitman cast a wide net looking for a maid?  How did she instruct her hiring firm?  Did she ask it to look for long-time resident?  I’d like to know what Nicky was paid over those nine years.  Was it adequate for the work she was doing, and the hours she was putting in for the multi-millionaire CEO of  eBay?  Did she work 8 hour days, or more?  Was she compensated for the over time?

At the press conference today Nicky Santillan claimed through tears that she had been grossly treated by Whitman.  Sitting next to her was Gloria Allred.  One would like to know, if it was really terrible, why she didn’t leave?  Were there mitigating circumstances of fear of exposure, extreme poverty?  Or is she making it up now?  If so, why? Allred claims Santillan was only paid for 15 hours of work a week, even though working more.  Why 15, in a multi-millionaire’s household?  Not to stay below the reporting line, surely?

Whitman is blasting back and showing copies of documents purportedly filled out falsely by Santilian.

We don’t know the whole story yet.  We don’t know who is lying.  We don’t know how an immigrant housemaid got in touch with Gloria Allred, one of the most high profile (read expensive) lawyers in LA.  We do know that when Whitman ties her opponent Jerry Brown to Gloria Allred, in this instance, she is showing herself no stranger to smears by the most tenuous of associations.  We know that Whitman is no stranger to charges of a volatile temper, which the claims of Santillan, if true, would tend to confirm.  We also know that Whitman was driven to outsource much of the labor force at eBay; hiring a non-native housekeeper with many native applicants available would also conform to her underlying business sense, which trumps her claims of home-state concern every time.

Stay tuned